Friday, September 29, 2006

21st Century Digital Multimedia Methodologies



Strategic Technology Planning









Multimedia Instructional Tools

Harnessing digital resources to enhance instruction

Educators have long known the affect supplemental materials and multimedia technology can have on learning and the overall classroom experience. Ten years ago, incorporating multimedia instructional tools into a tech-forward classroom consisted of overheads, VHS systems, and, if your district was particularly affluent, perhaps a 486 PC loaded with Windows 3.1 and basic desktop publishing applications. Choices were limited, expensive, and the knowledge necessary to turn this conglomerate of resources into a cohesive tool for learning was embryonic at best.

Today, one could argue that multimedia instructional tools aren't simply nice to include if time or financial resources permit, rather they are an essential part of the educational process. Today's tech-savvy educator recognizes that there are learning styles for every type of student. While some students might excel in the traditional learning style, still others are more biased toward aural or visual aides, for example; still others might prefer the interactive and self-directed nature of the internet. With the paramount necessity of instilling 21st-century learning skills in the nation's students, educators need to have a thorough grasp of the many resources available. Further, they must have the skills and knowledge necessary to teach the material, and expose their students to technological expressions of a given lesson's focus.

The choices available to educators are simply staggering compared to five years ago, let alone 15. The advent of podcasting, for example, has enabled the teaching of technology and media skills through the creation of student-run "radio shows." Subscribing to topical podcasts can be a cheap, enlightening way for students and teachers alike to get more out of a lesson; streaming video presents a means of making history fun, or seeing science in action; interactive web sites allow for easy, more efficient research. Taken as a whole, the possibilities are as endless as they are intimidating.

As technology continues to play a more central role in schools, educators are using multimedia instructional tools to liven up their lesson plans, reach different learning styles, and take advantage of those "teachable moments" like never before. However, given the power of the web and the immense popularity of podcasting and streaming video, weighing the truly useful against the wasteful is a job in itself. No one person can possibly know all of the resources available. That is why, with the generous support of ELMO, the editors of eSchool News have created this in-depth resource center complete with integration ideas, best practices, quality web resources for streaming video, web sites for research and lesson supplementation, podcasting trends and ideas, and much more. Our hope is that this resource center can serve as a hub of information for all of your audio, visual, and multimedia instructional needs--The Editors


eSN News & Information:

Audio Resources

Schools make content available to public
As the use of portable music players such as Apple's popular iPod continues to grow, some forward-thinking universities--and even a few K-12 institutions--are expanding their use of Apple's iTunes U course management system to make their content available to the general public. School officials say such efforts help fulfill their mission of educating the public--while also helping to promote their schools and colleges.

Apple offers free hosting of class lectures at 'iTunes U'
Students at the University of Michigan's School of Dentistry use their iPods and MP3 players for more than just listening to music--they also listen to class lectures and review notes through a student-run project that uses iTunes technology for academic purposes. UM-Dentistry uses iTunes U, a content-management system from Apple Computer, to post audio recordings of class lectures online. Students can preview a lecture recording, download an individual lecture, or subscribe to have downloads delivered to their computers or MP3 players automatically.

Students plug in, enroll in 'iTunes U'
Students at the University of Michigan's School of Dentistry can download and listen to class lectures on their MP3 players, thanks to the school's use of a new content management system from Apple Computer that adapts Apple's popular iTunes service for campus use. Now, Apple says it is making its new iTunes U service available free of charge to all other interested schools.

Podcasts help make history come alive
As the use of iPods and other handheld listening devices becomes more prevalent among students, some forward-thinking historical societies and other educational groups are embracing the technology as a means to reach students and further preserve history. At Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, for instance, historians are using podcasts to provide educators, students, and other potential visitors with information about the park and its historical significance.

Purdue makes lectures available as podcasts
Some students who miss classes at Purdue University in Indiana no longer have to bug classmates to fill them in on what they missed. Instead, they can download audio files of class lectures to their MP3 players or personal computers using the school's new podcasting service.

"IT Conversations" offers recordings of interviews with IT experts
School IT executives and ed-tech enthusiasts, listen up: You might be interested in "IT Conversations," a web site containing recordings of dozens of interviews, discussions, and debates with a number of IT experts and educators.

Yahoo amplifies multimedia use with new audio search feature
Yahoo Inc. has begun testing a new search engine feature that could help educators and students find audio files from the internet for use in lesson plans, class projects, and personal use. The free service boasts an index of more than 50 million audio files, including newscasts, speeches, and interviews posted online, as well as the internet's deepening pool of "podcasts"--recordings made to be played on a computer or digital device such as Apple Computer's iPod player.

Visual

Document camera helps capture students' focus on learning
In September 2004, Ruth Carter, a third-grade teacher at Scenic Hill Elementary School in Kent, Wash., opened a box that had been sitting in the school's workroom for two weeks. What she found changed the way she had been teaching her students for more than eight years. Inside the box was an ELMO HV-110XG visual presenter, which had been given to the school's principal for his perfect attendance record at the Kent School District principals' meetings.

Google enhances its digital maps with video of popular travel destinations--and images from Mars
Internet search giant Google Inc. has been busy with more enhancements to its online maps. In March, Google launched Google Mars, a browser-based mapping tool that gives users an up-close, interactive view of the Red Planet with the click of a mouse. The Martian maps were made from images taken by NASA's orbiting Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor. Users can see the planet in three different formats: The Martian elevation map is color-coded by altitude; the visible-imagery map shows the surface in black-and-white pictures; and the infrared map indicates temperature, with cooler areas dark and warmer areas bright.

TCEA speakers address photography, telephony
On the second full day of the 2006 Texas Computer Education Association conference, speakers and presenters addressed the growing areas of digital photography and telephony. Tony Brewer, motivational lecturer and author of Beginners' Guide to the Internet, gave a session on classroom digital presentation technologies, while David Burkhart, network communications manager for Texas's Wylie Independent School District, spoke on internet telephony.

Make scientific concepts come alive with these free 3D images
Teachers and students looking for images to make scientific concepts come alive can take advantage of Zygote Media Group's free 3D clip art at 3DScience.com, an online marketplace and community dedicated to scientific visualization. Visitors to the site can see various visual depictions of medical and scientific phenomena, including the Avian Bird Flu virus and the HIV virus. The site's low-resolution images are available free of charge and are well suited for use online or in PowerPoint presentations. High-resolution images, ideal for reproduction in print media, are available at a discounted rate for educators.

Visual Communicator Studio helps Brevard County Public Schools work "among the stars"
Following the lead of the county's own Kennedy Space Center, Brevard County (Florida) Public Schools wanted to provide access to space age video technology to 75,000 students in its 82 public schools. Though they were challenged by geography and budget constraints, they knew it was time to reach for the stars. The administration wanted each school to write, direct and produce its own weekly news broadcast, but this would require some special planning.

Free Cmap software rivals Inspiration
A research institute in Pensacola, Fla., is taking concept-mapping software designed in part to preserve scientists' knowledge and is giving it to schools worldwide at no cost, as a tool to help children learn. The move could threaten some vendors that offer similar concept-mapping software for a fee--most notably Inspiration Software Inc., which has based its entire business model on selling a similar type of product.

Video Goes to School, Part 3
This is the final installment of a three-part series on the use of video in education. Part One of the series, examined the impact video is having on schools. Part Two focused on the use of streaming video and other applications to enhance. This installment examines the video production process in the classroom.

Video Goes to School, Part 2
This is the second installment of a three-part series on the use of video in education. Part One of the series, examined the impact video is having on schools. This installment focuses on the use of streaming video and other applications to enhance education.

Students, teachers: Learn the art of digital storytelling here
Storytelling used to be something kids did huddled around a campfire or sitting Indian-style, books in hand, in a semicircle on the classroom floor. But as computers and other high-tech gadgets proliferate in schools, a new form of the art has emerged: digital storytelling, where a combination of multimedia tools--including graphics, audio, video, animation, and web publishing--are called upon to bring the story to life. Created by Bernard Robin, a professor at the University of Houston College of Education, "Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling" provides resources for teachers and students to explore the literal anatomy of the digital story.

Video Goes to School, Part I
This is the first installment of a three-part series on the use of video in education. This installment focuses on the impact video is having on schools.

Technological, societal factors are driving the video trend
Widespread, capable networking infrastructure, cheaper video capture and editing tools, and the demand from media-savvy students are the main factors driving the trend toward video in education, experts say. As an instructional tool, video has significant staying power in today's classrooms, even in the midst of new technologies and the discussion of technologies yet to come.

Royalty-free videos available to schools
Discovery Education has found a way to help educators avoid many of these copyright concerns. Through a new offer, subscribers to Discovery's unitedstreaming video-on-demand service now have access to more than 1,000 video clips that have been copyright-cleared by their producers for editing or reproduction by teachers and students in class projects.

Video on demand boosts students' math scores
Short video clips that reinforce key concepts are effective in increasing student achievement, according to a second research project. An earlier study found that video can improve learning in science and social studies. Now, brand-new research shows judiciously selected video clips also can produce statistically significant gains in algebra and geometry scores.

Schools' streaming video use at risk
The rights of U.S. schools and colleges to use a powerful new tool for enhanced communication and instruction are at risk, because a little-known California company claims it owns the patent on what enables streaming video. The company has already sent demands for royalty payments to several U.S. universities.

Wake County schools close the 'achievement gap' with IP-TV
Officials at the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina set an ambitious goal for the 2003-2004 school year: At least 95 percent of the students in this 104,000-student district are to be at or above grade level, as measured by the North Carolina end-of-grade test for third and eighth grades. Although 91 percent of the district's students now achieve this level of proficiency, district leaders are committed to elevating this number even further by finding ways to provide additional help to students who need it.

New 'visualization' technologies can help students hone web searches
As useful as internet search engines are, they have a pretty big flaw: They often deliver too much information, and a lot of it isn't quite what students are looking for. But some intriguing new technologies are getting better at bringing order to all that chaos and could revolutionize how students and others mine the internet for information.

3-D animations provide visual aids for students
Users of bigchalk.com's bigchalk Library now have access to more than 3,000 three-dimensional animations from Working Stock, a provider of nontraditional visual stock content and a division of Knight Ridder Tribune Information Services. These animations, which will be updated daily, aim to help students better understand how a device or process works and help them visualize complex concepts.

Seven Tips for Using Digital Images in the Younger Grades
Incorporating digital images into the primary school classroom using digital cameras, scanners, or web cams can enhance students' understanding of concepts and get them excited to learn. The author provides several strategies for using digital images in the younger grades, including the following...

Six Web Resources for Better Digital Photography
Carol S. Holzberg, author of Digital Shutterbugs, Unite! describes six web sites that are useful resources for digital cameras and photography.

Four Ways Video Can Help--and Three Ways It Can't
Abstracted from Barry Hampe's report What Video Does Well in Education--and What it Doesn't outlines the strengths and weaknesses of video's role in education.

Web/Software Resources

Web site aims to be research 'storehouse'
A new internet research tool called Digital Universe aspires to be a more authoritative version of Wikipedia. If successful, it could provide scholars and students with one more option for finding accurate, reliable information online.Skeptics, however, predict that Digital Universe is too ambitious for long-term success.

"Digital History" aims to make history instruction more interactive
Faculty at the University of Houston's history department and College of Education have designed the "Digital History" web site to support the teaching of American history to K-12 students. The site includes an online textbook, annotated historical documents, and more than 70 interactive, inquiry-based modules.

New directory steers educators toward free educational audio and video content
LearnOutLoud.com, an online portal for audio and video learning material, has launched what it calls the internet's largest directory of free educational audio and video content. This directory contains more than 500 free titles, including audio books, historical speeches, and university lectures. In addition to extensive links to free audio and video content--including collections of dozens of video lectures from MIT--LarnOutLoud.com says it has produced dozens of its own free audio titles for the directory.

Supplemental Instruction: SmartHelp motivates struggling students to succeed
William Nicholsen, executive director of Pennsylvania-based Holy Family LearningAs administrators: "We sometimes forget what it was like to be a student. I recall very well what it was like to struggle with math. While I have a Ph.D today, I was a math-phobic kid. And many of the students who come through the doors at Holy Family Learning facilities are no different." ...

"Mediasite.com"offers free, searchable presentations on thousands of topics
Sonic Foundry has created a web site that enables users to watch expert presentations on literally thousands of topics at no charge. Called Mediasite.com, the site is intended as a resource for journalists, educators, researchers, students, and just about anyone else looking for information on a variety of topics--everything from the treatment of contagious diseases, to Italian design, to virtual operating rooms.

Wikibooks to offer free eTexts for education
The Wikimedia Foundation--the group known best for the open-source, freely licensed encyclopedia project Wikipedia, which invites users to write, edit, and expand upon encyclopedia entries to create a collaborative, free-to-use online information resource--has begun a similar initiative for textbooks.

Online dictionary helps define good research
With more than 100 million visitors to its site since 2003, TheFreeDictionary.com has developed a reputation as a multifaceted, virtual research hub for students and teachers. Not only can visitors use this free web site to look up words--it features more than 1 million entries for words in general use--but they also can access a virtual encyclopedia, thesaurus, and reference guide, among other tools.

Yahoo to upstage Google's library plans
Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. is setting out to build a vast online library of copyrighted books that pleases publishers--something rival Google Inc. hasn't been able to achieve.

eSN's sneak peek at 'MS Student 2006'
Called Microsoft Student 2006 (MS Student 2006), this product is a cross between Microsoft's online Encyclopedia Encarta, a customizable search engine, and its Office productivity suite--geared specifically to the needs of students.

Students, teachers: Learn the art of digital storytelling here
Storytelling used to be something kids did huddled around a campfire or sitting Indian-style, books in hand, in a semicircle on the classroom floor. But as computers and other high-tech gadgets proliferate in schools, a new form of the art has emerged: digital storytelling, where a combination of multimedia tools--including graphics, audio, video, animation, and web publishing--are called upon to bring the story to life.

Schools embrace eLearning
Nearly three-fourths of public school districts in the United States plan to offer or expand distance-education programs in the near future, the federal government reported March 2.

Students face off online in this one-of-a-kind spelling bee that is generating a buzz
Spellbee.org, the first-ever online, multi-player spelling bee, was launched to coincide with last spring's National Spelling Bee by the Dynamical & Evolutionary Machine Organization (DEMO) laboratory at Brandeis University. Using the same philosophy of competition that drives corporations in an open economy, Spellbee encourages students to compete against one another in the hope that their skills will improve out of an inherent desire to succeed.

'Smartpaper' tech to transform learning
A new textbook publishing method that uses infrared technology to combine traditional books with digital content might ultimately decrease the cost of textbooks, make them much more interactive for users, and remove barriers for students who have difficulty accessing traditional texts.

New summer trend: Video game camp
In this warm season of thawed lakes, green mountains, and plentiful daylight, a small group of students will spend a month in quiet, air-conditioned classrooms in the city. They chose a different kind of summer fun: making video games at New York University's Camp/Game: Intensive Video Game Creation.

eSN Media Arts Resource Center Tools

Video Best Practices
As video becomes more popular in instruction, it's important for educators to know about the many different and effective ways in which it is being used. The links below give you some helpful insight and should spark ideas you can use at your own schools.

Video Link Library
Looking for lots of video content you can use in the classroom? You've come to the right place. Check out these sites where educators can download on-demand video to review themselves before putting it in front students.

"Show Me How Now"
Every week, with support from Atomic Learning, we bring you a different tutotrial on some of the using the latest in technology.

Insights from the Experts
Several veteran educators who have worked with video for many years now share their knowledge on sites that are enormously helpful but woefully under-publicized. We have taken the time to comb the web for such sites, which feature everything from the educator's favorite links to suggested lesson plans, personal stories, and examples of student-produced video.

Related Reports from eSN Ed-Tech Insiders and Conference Correspondents

Learning Italian with Podcasting

Podcasting and the "Robustness" of Educational Technologies

Connective Learning

Student Information and Google Earth

Web Wonders - Sites that are Time-Saving Tools for elementary teachers

Assessment and Beyond: Student-Driven Electronic Portfolios

The Virtual Museum: Historical Artifacts Tell All

Blogging toward Literacy: Promoting Reading and Writing in English Classes

Take Charge of your Tutorials with Screen Capture Video

eJournalism: Authentic Learning with Technology and Journalism

eDesigning Quality Interactive ClassroomProjects for Video Conferencing

Session Name: Student Reporters: Using Video Cell Phones as an Educational Tool

Dynamite Digital Photo Creations with Photoshop Elements

Digital Storytelling: Be the Next Ken Burns!

Podcasting and Podcatching for the Absolute Beginner

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

LIGHTS, CAMERAS.....INTERACTION

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Contents Copyright 2006 eSchool News. All rights reserved.

Lights, cameras ... interaction
Fairfax Network supplies educational content to students worldwide

Corey Murray, Senior Editor
June 1, 2006
Housed in a former elementary school and tucked away in a quiet suburban neighborhood in Fairfax County, the campus of the Nancy F. Sprague Technology Center seems an unlikely place for a modern technological marvel.

Walking through the green-tiled hallways, past a row of old aluminum lockers, I'm still not convinced. This is the epicenter of one of the nation's most technologically advanced school systems? I ask myself, keeping quiet long enough to give my hosts the benefit of the doubt. It certainly doesn't look like anything special.

We come to a door. I look up and hear our tour guide, Donna Franklin, coordinator of the school district's Multimedia Service Center, say in a whisper, "And this ... is Master Control."

Before I even walk through the door, I'm already thinking: Unbelievable.

In front of us, a woman sits staring up at a giant terminal on which several images appear. A computer screen flashes in the foreground, and she reaches for the keyboard, punching some buttons. Multicolored lights--reds and greens, blues--flash in my periphery. Servers and processors hum with activity. In a matter of seconds, we've stepped from an unremarkable office building into a room that resembles a scaled-down version of NASA's Mission Control.

Franklin doesn't say a word. She just stands there, watching, as we take it all in.

Awe and surprise, she would tell us later, are not uncommon reactions for first-time visitors to the Sprague Center, which serves as a central hub for the production, development, and delivery of all education-related multimedia content for the Fairfax County Public Schools' more than 240 schools and office buildings.

Among its many attributes, the center boasts a professional-grade television production studio, complete with video and sound mixing rooms, and the appropriately named "Master Control," the main distribution engine behind every piece of audio and video content produced and broadcast by the school system.

Instead of a tape-based system, where video must be recorded and then edited by members of a production crew in the confines of a special video editing room equipped with tape decks, Fairfax County uses optical disc technology, which lets producers take images recorded on disc and edit them directly on their desktop computer, using video editing software.

The finished product then can be sent from the desktop directly to producers in Master Control, where it can be automatically inserted into the programming lineup.

The transition to disc and digital media has allowed for a lot more "flexibility and efficiency" in production, says Franklin: "It's much better than carrying all those tapes around."

Eventually, she said, the goal is to have a system in place where producers can edit the video and then drag-and-drop the finished program directly into the production queue from their desktop, though Fairfax isn't quite there yet.

With its staff of experienced producers--whose resumes include stints with local television stations, and at least one Emmy Award-winning broadcast network--the FCPS Multimedia Service Center has created and produced an array of award-winning educational videos for use by teachers in the classroom and for distribution to the community via the district's two open cable access channels.

A quick glance through the FCPS program catalog reveals titles such as "America on the Move," a historical documentary about the evolution of the transportation system; "In Other Words," a public broadcast program produced entirely in Spanish; "Good Thinking," a documentary-style production highlighting the impact of school system boosters and volunteers throughout the community; "School Scene," a news broadcast featuring innovative programs underway at area schools; and "Meet the Author," a periodic in-house television special that features Fairfax County students with award-winning children's authors. Guests have included Lemony Snicket, the eccentric children's book writer made famous by his A Series of Unfortunate Events; long-time children's book author R.L. Stine; and many others.

In 2005, the district received 11 Telly Awards for its original programming. The Tellys, often referred to as the Emmys of non-broadcast television, are among the most sought-after awards in the television, commercial, and video industry, contends Franklin. Since 2001, the district reportedly has won 38 such awards.




Though Franklin attributes much of the center's national recognition to its staff, which she dubbed "quite an accomplished group," she believes the programs resonate with students, not for their professional appearance, but because they are made with input from classroom teachers.

"It's really important to understand that our producers do many types of programming," she said. "But no matter what type of programming it is, we always consult first with the educators ... We rely on the educators' expertise to know how to reach our audience."

That's no small task in a district the size of Fairfax County. With 163,500 students, FCPS is Virginia's largest school system, and the 12th largest in the nation.

With a district that size, Franklin says, it's nearly impossible to meet the needs of schools with in-house programming alone. Though the district employs one senior producer and eight full-time producers who work with support staff to create original programming, the Sprague Center also is outfitted with five high-powered satellite dishes used to pull educational content worthy of distribution from other sources, including the U.S. Department of Education, the Annenberg Foundation, the Classic Arts Network, and other providers of educational video and content for use in schools.

Of course, she explains, the school district can't just snatch any program it wants off the open airwaves. Thanks to copyright protections and other broadcasting rules, FCPS must be very careful about how it uses and distributes these third-party programs.

To avoid any confusion and cut down on the risk of inadvertent copyright infringement, the district has retained the services of an electronic media specialist.

"It's the job of the electronic media specialist to scour the airwaves looking for free content that we can use on the network," says Franklin, who added that Fairfax, like other districts, has "a limited budget" for original programming.

The funding for many of these in-house projects, she says, comes from a long-standing franchise agreement with regional cable television provider Cox Communications, as well as the district's ongoing pursuit of federal and state grants. But money also is made available through a variety of venture partnerships with such organizations as the National Air and Space Museum, the National Zoo, NASA, and others.

And the programs aren't for the benefit of Fairfax students alone.

Aware of the fact that other districts might not have the resources to produce and create their own educational programming, FCPS endeavors to make much of its original content available via satellite and the internet to other school systems around the world.

Through the Fairfax Network, first launched in 1992, the district produces and distributes as many as 24 programs a year. Each program, selected by a committee of curriculum specialists, librarians, and teachers, is broadcast free of charge to participating schools on specific dates throughout the school year. Programming guides and registration information are available through the district, or on the network's web site (see link below).

Within the county, teachers, students, and others who wish to view these programs can do so simply by turning on their cable television sets and flipping to Channel 21, one of two local stations operated by the district. Outside of Fairfax, however, schools must register online for the programs and tap into the broadcast via satellite, a process that can be done by way of their own dish, if they have one, or through a feed

provided by a local broadcast com-pany.

The district's second open channel, Channel 25, features a lineup of educational content downloaded by satellite from other sources, although that programming is not available across the larger Fairfax Network.

To date, Franklin says, as many as 25,000 registered schools are capable of receiving a feed for any program beamed across the network. That number dropped to as few as 9,000 a few years back when the county experimented with the idea of charging for access to its content. But, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and a number of other outside partnerships, Franklin says, access to these programs is--and likely will remain--free to schools. CM

LINK:

Fairfax Network
http://www.fcps.edu/fairfaxnetwork/index.shtml







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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Philadelphia Model School of the Future / Progress Report


Published: September 20, 2006

Where Big-City Schools Meet ‘Microsoft Smarts’

Born of a partnership between the Philadelphia public schools and the world's leading software-maker, a new high-tech high school starts strutting its stuff.

As its organizers see it, Philadelphia’s School of the Future is high-tech testimony to just what can be accomplished when big-city school districts team up with corporations that like to try new things.

“Philadelphia asked us to do something we’ve never done before: build a school,” said Craig J. Mundie, the chief research and strategy officer at the Microsoft Corp., which created the newly opened high school in partnership with the city school district. “So we took our best shot.”

A gleaming white building on the edge of a blighted West Philadelphia neighborhood, the $62 million school garnered wide attention when it opened this month, in part because of its technological bells and whistles. Those futuristic features include a tablet personal computer for each student, interactive digital whiteboards, a supercharged wireless network, customized educational software, and digital “smart cards” to open lockers and pay for meals—all making possible a virtually paperless environment.

Business, government, and education officials also laud the 162,000-square-foot school for its energy-efficient design, the flexible classroom furniture, its use of some of Microsoft’s business practices for staff and students, and a curriculum featuring project-based learning and career-skills requirements.

The need for such a school—and the business community’s support of it—is clear in light of an increasing demand for smart, adaptable employees in the United States and abroad, said Mr. Mundie. “It is more important than ever for companies … to help global educators meet future economic and social needs,” he said.

Microsoft and district officials stress that the technology giant did not pick up the tab for building the school. Nor did the money come from the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The funds came from the district’s $1.9 billion capital-improvement program.

Instead, Microsoft brought something better, said Paul G. Vallas, the chief executive officer of the 194,5000-student district: its people.

“This isn’t Microsoft money,” he said on the school’s opening day, wearing a blue Oxford-cloth shirt with the Microsoft logo on the front. “This is Microsoft smarts.”

Doug Lynch, the vice dean of the University Pennsylvania’s school of education, said superintendents elsewhere should look at the partnership between the Philadelphia district and Microsoft, with its can-do culture and wealth of learning resources. Yet he also suggested that such relationships should be approached with care.

“This innovative spirit … is laudable,” Mr. Lynch said. “But I urge caution, because if you fail, you’ll lose a lot of kids.”


Such admonitions were nowhere to be heard during the school’s opening ceremonies Sept. 7, when a crush of local dignitaries, 170 students and their camera-toting parents, and reporters and camera crews swarmed the campus, careful not to trample the newly sodded grass.

The events culminated with a video clip of Microsoft founder Bill Gates promising to visit. Then, as U2’s “Beautiful Day” boomed over loudspeakers, local, state, and company education officials rang handbells, signifying the school’s formal start.

Microsoft

The technology giant primarily provided human capital to the School of the Future. Forty-seven Microsoft Corp. employees helped plan the school’s design, technology, and management tools. The company also provided customized educational software and donated $100,000 to name the visitors’ briefing center.

Almost 50 Microsoft employees helped devise the School of the Future, the company says. “We wanted to create a learning environment more continuous, adaptive, and relevant,” said Mary J. Cullinane, the group manager for Microsoft’s U.S. Partners in Learning, a program that works with state governments and local schools on improving education, and the company’s point person for the school.

Ms. Cullinane led the creation of an “education competency wheel,” a set of 37 essential work skills for staff and students. The tool is modeled on Microsoft’s hiring and professional-development competencies. The Redmond, Wash.-based company also developed software, called the Virtual Teaching Assistant, that lets students direct the pace of their learning and allows teachers to give tests via the students’ computers.

The idea for the School of the Future started with Mr. Vallas, who approached Microsoft in 2003. At the time, the company was already considering building a school laboratory to show how technology can enhance learning, Ms. Cullinane said. The concept was to be similar to the Microsoft Home, a house near Microsoft’s facility in West London, England, that is outfitted with various new technologies, such as a bathroom mirror that doubles as a television or music player.

The partnership between the district and Microsoft kicked off in September 2003. By December of that year, the Microsoft team had begun full-time management of the project. In 2004, the district and Microsoft held school briefings in Philadelphia, England, and Australia and visited tech-savvy schools in California, Texas, and England to gather ideas.

Construction crews broke ground in March 2005. That July, Microsoft sponsored a summit on the future of education in which more than 200 education and government leaders from more than 30 countries participated. The second summit is scheduled to be held here in November.

“This [school] contains the best thinking of everyone we could bring into the project,” said Ellen Savitz, the district’s chief development officer.

Microsoft is not the school’s only corporate partner. For example, Blackburn, England-based Promethean Group Technologies Ltd. provides the school’s whiteboards; Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Meru Networks installed the wireless computer network; and Gateway Inc., based in Irvine, Calif., provides laptop computers to the students and staff.


The school has had its share of obstacles. Construction delays placed pressure on an already truncated 18-month building schedule. Costs also rose from a projected $48 million to $62 million, Ms. Savitz said.

Then there’s the name of the school. Its present name is temporary—though not from lack of trying.

The district hoped to raise up to $14 million in naming-rights fees for the school’s endowment fund, ranging from $25,000 for a classroom to $5 million to name the entire school. The district has raised $3 million so far, said Ms. Savitz. If no company steps up with $5 million—the price the district has set on the school’s name—the district may ask the community to help pick a permanent name, she said.

Of the money raised to date, $2 million comes from the Bowland Charitable Trust, a foundation in Blackburn, England, that helps support education projects in the United Kingdom and other countries.

The trust has a special interest in improving education in poor areas, and will encourage educational exchanges between urban schools in the United Kingdom and in Philadelphia, said Carole Fahy, the trust’s administrator. “We believe that not just the School of the Future, but the work that is being done by the Philadelphia school district, will in some areas show the way to improvements in urban schools, and not just in the U.S.,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Donations

Outside organizations donated about $3 million toward the School of the Future. Other businesses donated equipment or human resources.

• Bowland Charitable Trust: $2 million
• Philadelphia Water Department: $300,000
• SAP AG: $150,000
• Vanguard Foundation: $250,000 to hire a community-engagement coordinator for three years
• Promethean Technologies Ltd.: $250,000 in technology and equipment
• Microsoft Corp: $100,000
• Philadelphia Stock Exchange: $100,000
• SunGard Data Systems Inc.: $25,000
• Gateway Inc.: 10 laptop computers

The remaining $1 million comes from other companies, including $100,000 from Microsoft to name the visitors’ briefing center.

Walk into the school and what strikes you is the sunlight flooding its interior, its wide public spaces, and its strong, bold design. Mr. Vallas has called it a “school without shadows.”

But the school doesn’t just look good. It’s also energy-efficient, garnering the third-highest level in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system of the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington-based coalition of building industry leaders advocating environmentally responsible buildings.

The school’s heating and cooling system is almost 50 percent more efficient than a traditional system, said Jason Kilwinski, the director of sustainable design and operations for the Prisco Group, the Hopewell, N.J.-based architectural firm that designed the school.

A 40,000-gallon tank captures rainwater, which is used to flush toilets. That by itself will cut water use by 60 percent, Mr. Kilwinski said. Photovoltaic glass panels also help decrease the school’s electricity costs. In addition, the performance center’s green roof—composed of plants and mosses—will help insulate it and protect it from ultraviolet rays.

“The more you can do with natural processes,” Mr. Kilwinski said, “the more savings you can build into the system.”

The building itself is a teaching tool, he added. Students can soon go to a Web site to monitor how much power the school is using, for example, or how much water is being absorbed by the green roof.


Despite its pedigree, the school is not a magnet school, but largely draws students from the neighborhood. It will eventually educate 750 students, adding a class each year.

Roughly 1,500 students applied to the School of the Future this year; the 170 chosen were picked by lottery. Seventy-five percent came from the West Philadelphia community, and the remainder from the rest of the city.

Almost all the students are African-American, about 10 percent are in special education, and about 85 percent are poor.

“We did not screen for grades, attendance, discipline issues,” said Ms. Savitz. “We’re going to get what we’re going to get.”

At the end of the opening day, Principal Shirley Grover says goodbye to students from the first freshman class at Philadelphia's School of the Future.
—Christopher Powers

Students must demonstrate fluency in a foreign language, complete a research project, and demonstrate 11 “21st-century skills,” such as time management and problem-solving, to graduate, said Shirley Grover, the school’s principal. They must also apply to a college or university to get their high school diplomas, she said.

Honor students from Villanova University will tutor School of the Future students online, and professors from the University of Pennsylvania will teach a class in robotics and another in urban design. Drexel University will also provide resources, including a graduate student in library science, for its interactive learning center.

On the morning of Sept. 7, the school’s first freshman class approached the school holding white banners bearing names of continents. Many were neatly dressed in khaki pants and blue polo or T-shirts with the logos of local universities.

One of them was 14-year-old Aja Fairbanks, who wants to be an astronomer. “I’ve always been interested in the stars, skies, and space,” she said. “[The school] will give me the knowledge to succeed.”

Virginia Campbell, a parent of another student, said she hopes the school will fulfill its promise and won’t fall victim to urban neglect. “I hope people will keep it up, keep it clean,” she said, eyeing the spotless exterior. “West Philly could really use this.”

As with any experiment, Ms. Cullinane of Microsoft predicts, the new school will face bumps along the road. “We’re sure there will be mistakes, and sure there will be things done well, ” she remarked. But she said the company would stick by the school for the long haul: “We’ve committed not to just opening the school, but also learning from what’s been created.”

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

IMAGINE THAT! (NOW Continue to Make It Happen)


September 14, 2006

Students as Creators and Contributors

Today’s generation has an opportunity like none before it. The opportunity to freely create and contribute to society and a global audience from the confines of their own home, school, library or any other place they can connect into the network of information.


It’s this power of creating and contributing that draws our students to the rapidly growing sites of Myspace, Facebook, Xanga, and YouTube.

The Wall Street Journal reported some interesting data on the popular video uploading site YouTube. (Via Micro Persuasion)

* In a single month the number of videos on the site grew 20% to 6.1 million
* YouTube has some 45 terabytes of videos
* Video views reached 1.73 billion
* 70% of YouTube's registered users are American, roughly 50% are under 20
* The total time people spent watching YouTube since it started last year is 9,305 years

Students today do not want to receive information, they want to create it. They want to be a part of a social-network not just read about it. This is why sites like YouTube and Myspace are so popular. These spaces were designed for the purpose of allowing people to create information, not just receive it. Brian Crosby had a posting earlier this week on the Learning is Messy blog in which he states:
One of the issues I believe is that kids are perceived by society as only having the potential to contribute to society sometime in the future. If kids were appreciated for what they can contribute now, and that “contribution” was valued by society, perhaps society would be more willing to “invest” more substantially in them at an earlier age. One of the transformative aspects of technology is that it allows students to produce finished products that others have access to and can use: Other students, other members of the local community and members of the global community.

We are in a place and time when creating and contributing to a worldly audience is easier than ever; whether through the written media (blogs and wikis), spoken media (podcasting), or the visual media (videos). It reminds me of the educational idea:

Tell me and I forget
Teach me and I remember
Involve me and I understand

Creating is doing and doing with a purpose is contributing to society. So as educators how do we harness this power in positive, educational ways? We listen to our students.

Morning after morning my middle school students come in and head to one web site…YouTube. YouTube is the new entertainment center for teens, and I don’t blame them. Spend some time there and you soon find the minutes flying by as you get deeper into viewing what people have created and contributed to this social-network. Where was this when I was in school? I remember having to run to the computer lab to make sure I got one of the copies of Oregon Trail…the original Oregon Trail!

Watching this day after day, I decided to harness this power of creativity and have my students create digital stories. Using the free Microsoft application Photo Story 3 and the tutorials created by David Jakes, my students taught themselves how to use the program to create their stories for class. Then using the K12 group within YouTube that Miguel Guhlin created, the students uploaded the videos to share with a worldly audience. Students as creators contributing their new knowledge to the world.

Listen to your students; find what new web tool, web site, or social-network excites them. Find a way to harness their excitement of being creators and contributors and bring that excitement into the classroom and allow your students to create something that teaches or tells a story to a global audience.

Monday, September 18, 2006

A brief respite on HOW WE GOT FROM THERE TO HERE!

Published 18 September 2006

Understanding Media Psychology and Learning to Learn:

An Interview with Bernie Luskin of Fielding Graduate University

_____


It is difficult to describe Dr. Bernard Luskin without using the word pioneer. For more than four decades, Bernie has been at the forefront of developing technology in the classroom and has been a long-standing contributor to the research of media psychology-the study of how technology affects the manner in which we teach and learn. He has been president and CEO of divisions of innovative Fortune 500 companies, including Philips Interactive Media, Mind Extension University, and Polygram's American Interactive Media. He is the recipient of two Emmy awards and serves on the Education Policy Committee of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Bernie was founding president of Coastline College, president of Orange Coast College, and founding chancellor of Jones International University, the first fully accredited, web-based university. He currently serves as executive vice president and director of the Media Psychology, Media Studies program at Fielding Graduate University. He recently was appointed a member of IMS's Executive Strategic Council and, earlier this year, spoke at IMS's Summit on Global Learning Industry Challenges conference in Indianapolis. IMS talked with him about the study of media psychology and technological advances in the classroom.

IMS Global: How do you define media psychology? And why does it make sense as a new field of study and research?

BL: Media psychology is really the application of psychology to media. It's as simple as that. It's the application of psychology to the human experience. The field actually has quite a long history, but the use of the term is more recent. In my own case, I've been working in media psychology for more than 40 years. And yet, the term didn't come into common usage until recently. The definition is much broader today than it was in the early 90s when the media psychology division of the APA (American Psychological Association) was formed. At that time, it was mostly talk-show hosts, the Tony Grants, and the Dr. Ruth Westheimers, who were either on television or were radio psychologists, talking about media psychology.

In the 90s, we began to realize that psychology was relevant to software design, to tele-medicine, to public policy, and government-related issues, to all facets of education, entertainment, and software games simulation.All of those areas became, in the current vernacular, silos. In 1997, the media psychology division of APA decided to do a study of psychology and new technologies and I co-directed the study.

It identified about a dozen areas where psychologists had the professional opportunity to work in the areas of media. That broadened out the whole division. Following that, I started teaching a course in media psychology at Fielding Graduate University and now we offer a Ph.D program in media psychology and an Ed.D concentration in media studies.

In the media psychology program, the field of study is really media studies. It's the study of media effects. What effect does this convergence of iPods, television, and the like have on learning? In learning, you have to look at nature and nurture, but you have to also look at the physical technologies, the psychology and the physiology of learning. With magnetic resonance imaging, we can now track the learning experience much more effectively than ever before. We know the brain centers used in learning. We've learned that the emotional response is different from the cognitive response in different places in the brain. We now know more than we understand, which is one of the learning challenges before us.

IMS Global: What have been some of the most profound changes in teaching and learning as a result of the introduction of some of these new technologies?

BL: Early on, in the 60s, I taught what was called data processing and my dissertation was on computer-assisted instruction, which is really media psychology today. In the latter part of the 60s, I worked with Carl Rogers at the Center for the Study of the Self in San Diego. In 1972, we created a television series called As Man Behaves. We did it when I was at Coastline Community College. It applied psychology and media through the medium of television. My point is that the aspects of media psychology as it relates to teaching and learning have long historical roots. If you go back to the tele-courses, you can go back to Sunrise Semester in 1979 when they were offering the talking-head courses on television. Through the 80s, they had auto-tutors and computers were beginning to be used in different ways. Even slides were a big thing in those days. By the late 70s, the Adult Learning Service at PBS got set up. Sesame Street had been created and was having some success. As we got into the 80s, we shifted from analog to digital media and the boom took off. Cable television grew dramatically, and they perfected devices, including the laptop computer and audio-visual kinds of things. The 80s was really kind of a decade of spreadsheets and limited audio-visual impact in the learning environment.


The 90s has actually been kind of a decade of the gadget. The invention of digital everything and the proliferation of media, including satellites and all those kinds of things, really came into their own only at the end of the 20th Century. We're right in the sweet spot at the moment where the audio-visualization of media, both in and out of the classroom, is accepted. The obstacles are pretty much diminished. Almost every college and university in the United States today is offering online courses using some level of media. It's becoming more personal rather than less personal. Both mass media and individualized use of communication is booming on all sides. In the Georgia Medical College, for example, they have an experiment going on whereby patients are being treated by physicians in central locations who are using their computers with cameras. This kind of thing is spreading in all forms of distributed learning. Online is a term that is fading and the notion of learning is really more of being distributed. I mean, knowledge is portable, it's pliable, it can fly through the air.

At USC, they've had big projects going now in visual learning. And one of the arguments is that if we hadn't developed alpha-numeric processing, the use of alphabet and numbers, we would be much more sophisticated in audio and visual communications today than we are.

IMS Global: Back in the 70s and early 80s, everybody was talking about distance learning and how technology was going to revolutionize the way in which we teach and learn. It seems like that prediction sort of fizzled initially, and that it's only within the last decade that we've seen some of those visions come to fruition. Did higher education initially go down the wrong path or was technology simply not advanced enough to meet the expectation?

BL: I don't think we stumbled at all. I think it's been a process of evolution, competition, invention and it just takes time. Pick any device. Pick the airplane. The first airplane flew 5,000 yards, then it was a fixed-wing plane that barely flew. Then they added a second engine. How many years does it take to do those things? It takes generations, and I think the cycle is pretty consistent. In my experience, as I look back from the evolution of the book and all of the things that we know about, they continue to get better, they continue to be used more effectively and we continue to improve their applications in the learning environment. For example, if we go back to the 50s, we cut our teeth on programmed instruction and people learned to write around the use of objectives and put materials together. In the 80s, I was part of Philips Interactive Media, which was, at that time, the largest interactive media company in the world. We made a lot of breakthroughs. The interesting thing is there were a lot of formats out there at that time, as there always are, CDI, CD-ROM, CD-TV, the whole alphabet soup. They were all trying to do the same thing. Capitalism was at work, people were trying to get proprietary ownership of certain things they could invest in. Little by little, the dominant technologies in media prevailed whether they were the best or not. It's still argued in computer circles whether MS-DOS was the best operating system at the time or not. It just became the standard and Microsoft became what it did because of what they did. History is littered with the carcasses of formats that were really quite good but were part of the convergence. So going back to your question, I really don't think it has been a false start. It's just a process of research and development and I think we've just barely scratched the surface yet in the use of media and learning.

IMS Global: We realize that a lot of this emerging technology is a passing fad and some will be around a while. What advice would you offer to other institutions as to which technologies they should watch and invest in?

BL: Let me answer that by providing six suggestions. First, I would shift emphasis to the learning priority. It's all about learning, it is not about media or technology. It's about the message, it is not about the massage. At Fielding, for example, we recently eliminated the CIO's position and moved the learning system into the Office of Academic Affairs and set up the position of Chief Learning Officer. So my first suggestion would be to shift learning to the number one priority.

Second, understand what we have learned. With magnetic resonance imaging and other kinds of advanced technologies, plus all of the research we've done about learning, we know a lot more about how to help people learn both inside and outside the classroom.

Third, recognize the globalization and the fact that the world is, indeed, flat. Albeit that it's a world of cultural differences and dissonance, the die is cast on world communication. Every college and university that I know of today is using media in the classroom and has non-classroom based media instruction. In terms of informal learning, people are learning how to learn. If you look at the new consumerism, people are constructing their own materials and the way they do things now, too.

Suggestion number four would be to get with the program. I think we're beyond the point of no return. The media is here, the technology is here. The demand is absolutely here if you look at the research you get from the telecommunication industry and the desire of people to learn in new ways. The public interest is almost as high on the desire for learning and enrichment opportunities as it is for entertainment and movies. Look at what's driving the NASDAQ. It's being driven to higher numbers now by these private profit-making universities that are experiencing huge success because people want to learn in that kind of environment.

Fifth, don't be cowed by the media. It is simpler than all that. I think it's going to get easier and easier to use. The real solution is to make the media transparent. It's all about the experience. It needs to be used without thinking about how it's delivered.

And sixth, we need to continue to support research on media and its effect on learning. And then we need to fix our schools. K-12, if you look at the national reports that are coming out and you look at the urban school districts, is having a difficult time. I'm proudly chairman of the board of Hi-tech High, which is now the number one high school in Los Angeles. Their focus is on learning, but it enjoys a tremendous technology support system.

I don't claim any originality in any of these comments, but I've paid a lot of attention to the legacy that is passed on by all of those people in the past whose work we have learned together and whose work needs to be shared into the future so that it's understood. I think that is one of the things that IMS is trying to provide, to be a catalytic agent. It's all about synergy and convergence. There is no question that it's more complicated now than it has ever been before because the power of media communication and the power of media learning is beyond our ability to use it at the moment.

IMS Global: We marvel at the ability of the younger generation's ability to multi-task. Is the ability to thrive in this new media a generational thing? Or is it possible to train an old dog new tricks?

BL: Well, you can train some old dogs, but the reason there is a generational gap is because it's hard for old dogs to realize the tremendous changes that have taken place. I have to admit that I'm sort of an old dog. I can hand my niece a Blackberry and she will sit down and use it. I look at it and I need somebody to help me. I was a whiz kid 40 years ago and what we knew then is almost counter-intuitive compared to these kids that I work with today. It's just unbelievable what extraordinary ability they have. It's more important what the students learn than what the teachers teach. If you understand that learning how to learn is really the end game, then you really have something going for you, especially in distance and distributed learning.

We're beyond the point of no return, but there is still going to be a lot of resistance and conflict. There are a lot of issues that have to be sorted out and even learning management systems and all of these mechanisms that carry data back and forth, while they seem improved to us today, are very rudimentary compared to what we're going to have five and ten years from now.

IMS Global: In your most recent book, "Casting the Net Over Global Learning," you address media psychology and the manner by which we teach and learn using many of the new technologies. Looking into your crystal ball, what can we expect in the area of teaching and learning during the next two decades? What changes will we see in online and distance learning?

BL: I think two things. I think graduate professional education is going to become very sophisticated and the leadership programs that teach people who are going to set up these new institutions are going to proliferate. What we're going to have as a result of this proliferation is a whole generation of new leaders. And the leaders are going to have the appropriate components skill, the understanding of technology, the understanding of psychology, the understanding of economics, the understanding of learning theory, to successfully lead their institutions. All the research they do on companies, if you look at business, most new business ventures fail because of either lack of financial resources or poor management skills. These leadership programs in education are turning out people who can run these institutions, that know how to lead them into the future. So I think the graduate programs at the masters and doctorate level are going to thrive because these are self-motivated adult career learners who will see the vision and really be able to do it.

I also think the undergraduate degree programs are going to grow significantly, the degree completion programs, especially those in diversity using media. I've been doing work with Toro University International. I gave the keynote address at their graduation ceremony last August and they had several thousand students, about half of whom were military graduates, and many of those students were stationed in Iraq. I think there are a number of these institutions-the University of Maryland, the University of Phoenix, Fielding Graduate University-that are leading the way, regardless of the controversy with respect to the distance learning institutions, I think there are new educational metaphors, not only the profit-centric universities, but the diversity of the non-profits into distance and distributed learning, the coming of the corporate university, some of which are now accredited. I think it is a tremendously bright future for higher education in this country.

IMS Global: Do you think we will reach a point where learning will become on-demand, where ours will become a society of lifelong, fully-engaged learners?

BL: I think we've moved beyond learning as most think of it today. We are beyond what most consider "online learning." Yes, we will become more engaged, more flexible, more independent. Those are terms that are performance based and people can do them. But I think now, with the coming of the dynamics of the Internet and fully wireless communication, learning has become more of a self-actualized experience. You know, learning is an exercise of the mind. You can put thoughts together as fast as you are capable of assimilating and assembling them. And so, I think the learning experience is a self-development experience that people will be able to pursue at lightning speeds. The present traditional structures are so far behind the power curve in the way that we measure and support, reward and record, all of that mitigates for a different kind of future that goes beyond even the traditional ways that we explain them. The academy, writ large in education, is a huge monolith with a lot of costs and moves like a giant iceberg. It's hard to get things to change. But they are changing, they will change, and you can't stop them. All the pieces are here now, and, slowly, we are putting them all together.

About IMS

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To reference this article please cite:

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Sunday, September 17, 2006

STRETCH: Your Imagination!

Think "Generative Education" Content

Media Frenzy

A Video Business Model Ready to Move Beyond Beta

Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, announced the company’s long-awaited online movie service last week and showed off a new device that will allow users to watch Web videos on TV.

Published: September 17, 2006

VIDEO mania is in full swing. Amazon is finally doing movie downloads. Apple is touting a new wireless gizmo to beam movies from laptops to TV screens. NBC is introducing a video syndication service that might pit it against Google and Yahoo, and it’s joining the other big networks in putting its shows online for free with advertising. MTV is working with Google to populate its video content all over the Web.

It is wholly unclear which, if any, of these or any of the dozens of other recent efforts that have been announced will break away from the pack, which is why many of them are couched as “tests” and “experiments.” (Whoever thought up this idea of Web sites forever being in “beta” deserves a prize as the spinmeister of their generation.)

Still, a few things are clear from the recent news flow. First of all: yes, the world has gone batty over video. Thirty-second clips, three-minute spoofs, half-hour sitcoms, TV dramas that haven’t been shown in decades, rap videos, Hollywood blockbusters and feeds from TV news outlets big and small are flooding online. The term video itself is already starting to sound old — the equivalent of songs before the advent of MP3’s and downloads.

The good news — and my second point — is that there’s gold in them there hills. Video delivered over the Internet is clearly shaping up to be an actual business that advertisers are interested in. The broadcasting (netcasting?) of television programs and clips on the Web moves the debate away from Internet-versus-TV because if TV executives put their best material online and get paid for it, the proposition becomes Internet-cum-TV.

The research firm eMarketer estimates that video-related advertising will top $2.3 billion within four years. And let’s not forget that Google is on track to exceed $7 billion in revenue this year — and that is predominantly from old-fashioned, Yellow Pages-style text ads. Heck, they don’t even have pictures, let alone moving images.

Much attention has been focused on the economics of selling digital versions of Hollywood movies (like in Amazon’s new Unbox service) as an alternative to DVD sales and rentals and to stem piracy. But what has yet to be exploited — what Google, Yahoo and many other aggregators are vying for — are pieces of the $60 billion or so that will be spent on television advertising in the United States this year.

NBC’s new syndication business, dubbed NBBC, for National Broadband Company, promises to match up content creators with Web sites that might be interested in showing the video. All three parties will get to take a cut of the embedded advertising revenue. There is much to quibble with about the way NBBC came out of the gate; its executives dissed most blogs as unworthy of their content and sneered at the homemade content that is proliferating on YouTube.

On the other hand, any video service using NBBC is nonexclusive, so there is really no reason not to use it (which explains why little corners of NBC competitors like Fox and CBS are participating in the NBBC rollout, through their IGN.com and CSTV businesses, respectively).

Some aspects of the NBBC concept can lead to head-scratching. If I have a great piece of video on my Web site, for instance, is it more valuable to syndicate it through NBBC or to just have it spread virally across the Web? A simple link will take people to the video and any ad accompanying it for free. But that’s why it’s an experiment.

The clever thing about NBBC, though, is that it’s an entirely new business — to the extent it will distribute other companies’ programs — that is designed to bring in new money. Even if free advertiser-supported video on the Web takes off, it’s far from clear whether those ad dollars will be greater than the dollars NBC may lose from viewers who will no longer watch its show on regular TV, or download or DVD and so on.

Which brings us to Apple’s potential convergence-buster, dubbed iTV (the name is — you guessed it — beta). Betting against Steven P. Jobs has not been a sound proposition in recent years, but there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about whether iTV, which doesn’t actually exist yet, will have the technological wherewithal or enough compelling content to matter. But it does draw people closer to a world where inexpensive liquid crystal displays will moot the long-running debate about convergence because people will just plug in their cable or Internet or Wi-Fi and do what they please.

“The real win here is in high-value, high-quality, high-definition content on your TV set,” said Josh Bernoff, a vice president at Forrester Research. “To do that is going to require more than what Amazon and frankly more than what Apple is doing. We’re still waiting for that device.”

Or maybe it’s here and we just can’t afford it. TiVo last week brought to market its Series 3 digital recording box, which appears to have the ability to do everything from record in high-definition to take video files through a broadband Internet connection either directly or wirelessly. At $799, however, it’s the most expensive TiVo toy yet.

And if you want to really — really — get your hands on as much video as one could possibly enjoy, may I recommend the new DirecTV Titanium service? Introduced recently as the ultimate luxury for anyone who calls their home a “crib” with a straight face, it’s basically everything the satellite provider has to give for a flat fee of $7,500 a year.

That means every regular, pay and high-definition channel, every sports package, pay-per-view movies (at no cost), and a whole bunch of tuners and digital video recorders to do with as you please. There is also 24-hour a day “concierge” service for technical help and anything else.

Best of all, none of it is in beta.