Students and businesses interested in taking part in the SciTechsperience internship program can now complete online applications at MHTA.org. SciTechsperience is Minnesota’s paid internship opportunity for students studying in STEM fields. It is a new MHTA program made possible by funding through the Minnesota Science & Technology Authority.

SciTechsperience is a key economic development initiative aimed at expanding Minnesota’s talented STEM workforce by providing hands-on experience for talented college students. The idea is to keep those students living and working in Minnesota once they graduate in order to strengthen and advance the state’s knowledge-based economy.

Qualified businesses can receive a dollar for dollar match up to 50% of an intern’s wages for a maximum of $2,500. There are other eligibility requirements students and businesses should check out before they apply to take part in the program. You can read them and complete the applications at MHTA’s SciTechsperience program page.

Good luck!

It is essential that businesses and communities have an effective presence on the Internet. Yet over half the businesses in Minnesota cannot be found on the Internet. This means potential customers cannot find them.

The University of Minnesota Extension is changing this through the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities program. We offer a pair of free workshops to any business or community group outside the Twin Cities metro willing to host them. These workshops have been offered nearly 200 times throughout the state and are well received.

To arrange these workshops or for questions, please contact: Hans Muessig, Program Director, hmuessig@umn.edu or 763-360-0993. For more information please go to the Extension MIRC website www.extension.umn.edu/community/mirc.

Mankato has joined the growing Bring Your Own Technology movement that allows students to use their own Netbooks, laptops, and tablets — anything that connects to the school’s wireless network — during class time.

“By allowing kids to bring in their own devices, you free up school resources for the kids who don’t have access,” says Doug Johnson, director of media and technology for the Mankato Public School System. (Johnson wrote the book — literally — on the subject; The Classroom Teacher’s Technology Survival Guide is published this month.) For example, in classrooms that have a group of four computers, finding time for all 30 students to use them can be challenging. In Mankato, 90% of the students have some sort of wireless-capable device, which leaves only eight students in a typical class who will need to use the class computers.

It’s an interesting concept. On one level, I think it’s a practical solution. Having some kids bring in their own computers does mean fewer computers required to cover the kids who don’t have their own. So it can level the playing the field during the school day, in that everyone has a computer. (Although I imagine the playing field isn’t too equal when there is such a wide range of devices out there. Forget about hand-me-down sweaters, imagine going to school with your cousin’s Commodore 64!)

From a management perspective I think this has got to be a challenge. The article brings up the broadband issue of having to plan for enough bandwidth to meet all needs. I think that’s a good problem to have and one we should be striving to solve regardless. The real issue is managing the tech support. Is each kid responsible for the upkeep on his computer? When the computer quits in the middle of the class, who helps? How do you protect the network and computers from viruses and what do you do about security and privacy? Do you allow sharing via flash drives or is everything in the cloud? (Sounds like Mankato is cloud-based but that probably works better with some devices than others.)

The article brings up similar points…

Mobile phones, and especially those that aren’t smart phones, obviously don’t have the same capabilities as computers. But when tablets and Netbooks enter the picture, it becomes less of an argument against insufficient technology and more an argument against managing multiple technologies. Stager adds that in a class full of students handling his or her own device, each one different from the other, will only “amplify [teachers'] anxiety and reduce use.”

From a teaching perspective, how do you handle so many devices and different reactions/reaction times across a classroom? I was a computer teacher in a grade school for a very short time. We had about 12 computer, 8 of which might be working at any one time. Everything was donated; everything was unique. And the network used a dialup connection to the Internet. The class was much less about teaching computer skills than about trying to repair computer issues. It sounds like the situation is Mankato is much better, but is every school so well prepared?

And although Johnson [Doug Johnson, director of media and technology for the Mankato Public School System] admits that more traditional teachers resist or are overwhelmed by this type of learning, students will need little support because they’re already familiar with their own devices. If the bandwidth and infrastructure are in place for students to access the school network, Johnson says they’ll be able to do their work with little oversight.

The advent of devices is a disruptive technology – and I applaud Mankato for taking it on. I am curious to see how this plan pans out in the long term. I think (maybe I hope) there will be a lot of trial and error in education as educators and administrator try to unleash the potential and prepare students for jobs of tomorrow – not the job of today. We can’t be afraid to fail when it comes to integrating technology into the schools - because I think by doing nothing we’re already failing the workforce of tomorrow. (That’s not to say that I think Mankato will fail – but I think their policy may see a few iterations as technology, financing and needs change.)

“We gathered good people to formulate these recommendations and action items in order to support innovation in schools and districts,” said State Superintendent Tony Evers. “Schools shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to figuring out how best to use technology. This plan will serve as a roadmap of best practices and maximum impacts.”

Last month, I wrote an article on flipped classrooms in Stillwater and potential issues with assuming all students have adequate access to broadband and technology to participate in a flipped curriculum. (Quick reminder, a flipped classroom instructs students to learn, often via video at home and practice skills in the classroom.) The article spurred a discussion (online, but via Facebook so semi-private) where someone thought access to broadband was probably not an issue in Stillwater. Maybe not – but it is an issue in other areas. I think lifting the discussion to a statewide level rather than community level as Wisconsin has done, helps minimize education gaps. My hope is that it sets a standard that helps raise education goals – but it also requires the schools to consider inequities in broadband access – and helps build the case for ubiquitous coverage.

But to get back to Wisconsin and delve into the specifics, the press release highlighted recommendations…

• Providing students the opportunity to take online and blended courses before graduating from high school
• Exploring methods that allow teachers to maximize their efforts, such as the “flipped classroom”—where the tradition of transferring knowledge via lecture is replaced with a digital homework assignment such as a podcast; meanwhile, students do homework in the classroom, where teachers can engage in improved coaching and assessment
• Invigorating collaborative efforts with businesses and industries
• Allowing students to use their own devices for learning
• Ensuring sufficient and affordable broadband access for schools and students, and equitable access for every household with students
• Developing a statewide, online environment for Wisconsin educators to share and explore quality teaching resources and methods, to avoid redundant curriculum development tasks and to share best practices

The vision is a website it is divided into the following areas:

1. Pedagogy & Instruction – nice shift to teachers as facilitators
2. Curriculum & Assessment – nice focus on collaboration
3. Professional Learning & Leadership
4. Data & Information Systems – nice balance of assessing students and systems, which should mean more strive to improve
5. Policies & Procedures – good connection to workplace
6. Hardware & Infrastructure

I have to pull out just one comment from the Hardware and Infrastructure section because it hits on an issue that I think is important…

The FCC’s “Household Broadband Guide” recommends households with four computers have between 6-15 Mbps, even if just one of those computers is used for an application such as streaming video, video conferencing, or online gaming. “Broadband” is defined as having a minimum of 4 Mbps connection to the Internet.

Finally the site includes a list of action items. I suspect or hope that progress towards achieving those items will be tracked as time goes on. (Given that the vision is less than a week old, it makes sense that nothing is crossed out yet.) The format of the report is easy to follow. It seems as if they had the right people in the room to create a vision that addresses the needs of teachers, administrators, students, families and future employers; it also presents technology as a solution to those needs – not another issue to be addressed.

The vision is built somewhat upon the same structure as the National Broadband Plan – where the required steps will be filled in as the path is followed. Due to many fewer moving pieces, this is a lot easier to grasp than the National Broadband Plan. It would be a nice model for the Minnesota Broadband Task Force’s vision/outline too.

In an interview with USA Today, General Mills Chief Marketing Officer Mark Addicks points out that the cereal box is one of most read items today. On the average three people per household read the box up to twelve times. Now they can be providing more content – to those folks who have smartphones. They are also looking at apps.

Apparently we can expect to start seeing these tech treats later this year. Addicks didn’t want to get in too much details, in case competitors might be reading, but he did offer this…

“You point to a logo and things start to appear,” he says. “Maybe some functional content will pop up on a cake-mix box, or you might see entertainment and games coming from a cereal box. What I’m hoping for is pure entertainment.”

It’s fun but I think it also speaks to the growing ubiquity of smartphones. Brands generally do not shoot for attracting the bleeding edge of customers – they want the critical mass.

The Internet has opened up a world of at-home learning opportunities, but how much should we rely on those when many families still don’t have Internet access?

The author spoke about flipped math classes now offered to fifth graders in Stillwater, MN, where students watch video lessons at home and spend class time working on problems – or what many of us traditionally think of as homework. (Khan Academy is one of the most famous flipped class structures.) I suppose it’s not surprising that I think flipped classrooms are a great idea but it was interesting to read an article that pointed out potential issues with the structure – the first being access to broadband.

Access to broadband – and home computers – is undeniably a big barrier for the flipped classroom. But I’d like to see that as an opportunity to work with families to get them beyond that roadblock to : 1) provide computers and/or lower cost broadband access in a perfect world or 2) provide after-school access to the technology in the school as a Plan B. Otherwise I think we’re playing to the lowest technology common denominator rather than trying to raise the bar for everyone. That not only cheats the students, it seems like a bad investment in our community.

Ironically, Stillwater’s Flipped Classroom website describes the move towards flipped learning as a move away from targeting the lower common denominator…

A traditional teaching technique for math is one where the primary purpose of the classroom time is for the teacher to present content. Generally, the pacing of the content targets the average or slower learner.

I’m excited to see that Stillwater has chosen the road less taken to raise the potential for all of their fifth graders.

The author asks a second question that doesn’t directly involve technology as much as I think touch upon a byproduct technology has brought to modern life…

When society is already wringing its hands about how much homework is appropriate, what would it mean to place so much of the burden of learning on the home?

I don’t know if more time is spent working on “homework” in the flipped model versus the traditional model. I do know that last night’s homework for my oldest kid involved her saying – “quiz me on cells”. If you have a middle schooler, you know that general knowledge does not help much. They need their quiz answers to match the reading exactly. Even the younger kid’s homework started with “you know Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”. Frankly, I feel I could pass an essay test on Alexander – but not a pop quiz.

So I can tell you that as a parent, I think watching the video with the student would save my time. I feel like it would save their time too – because we wouldn’t be barking up wrong trees and we wouldn’t be making drives back to school for the text-book because “Google answers aren’t allowed”. And I feel like it would be preparing my kids for tools that are being used in the workplace today. Think about it – when is the last time you watched a video to learn something; now when it the last time you picked up a reference book. (As I librarian I type that with some sadness, but I type it.) Part of the benefit of the flipped classroom is preparing kids for technology of this century, not last century.

The other point the author raises is that school shouldn’t bleed into the whole day…

But students also have lives outside of school. They play sports. They participate in church groups. They join clubs.

In some ways I think that’s the most compelling argument – but I think where you land on that issue probably aligns with how you feel about the workday bleeding into the whole day. In this case, yes technology does potentially make for more hours of work for a kid – but just as with an increasing number of work schedules, perhaps that hours could become more flexible. So perhaps I find this criticism most compelling because it highlights the fact that so many opportunities present themselves in education when we use technology that it challenges us to reevaluate traditional teaching methods. That’s exciting and scary – but again I think to not challenge the “regular” way will leave our children unprepared for the new century.

In Rochester, the Rochester Police department will use advanced analytics software from IBM to mine, share and extract intelligence from critical data in order to improve police investigative and prevention programs. Law enforcement will then be able to identify local “hot spots,” and allocate resources in advance.

The application, IBM InfoSphere Identity Insight, provides users with specific data from existing law enforcement and public safety databases to aid in investigations and prevention. “The technology will allow law enforcement officials to see broad patterns about activity in their city and focus on prevention,” Cleverley explains.

We were talking (emailing) a little but about how those articles were connected. I think both speak to a great schism in economic development strategies.

Information Channels as Economic Development Tools

The first article talks about the shift from an economy based on dollar value vs an economy based on knowledge. Specifically the article looks at Twitter. It’s difficult to monetize the value of Twitter and Tweets – because the value isn’t in the technology; the article claims that the value is in the database of information that’s being collected.

Tweets are unique bits of information in that their lifespan is brief. So even the value of the information is sort of misstating the value. (Although I’m sure there is value to be gleaned from looking back at Twitter trends.) The real value lies in that stream of information – and immediate access to users. The value will be reaped by those who listen, act or react to the information.

So we’re seeing a change in the value chain. Value shifts from that which we can monetize today, to information – and I’d claim to information channels. Folks who have access to technology and broadband have access to those channels. Others do not and will therefore be at a disadvantage – regardless of what else they do. (You can get the information – but that’s yesterday’s coin of the realm – today you need to have access to the source.)

A great underpinning in this shift is that money loses its value once it’s spent. If I have a dollar, I can keep it or give it to you. We can’t both have it. With information, we can both have it. And I think folks who learn to retain the value while sharing have the greatest opportunity to succeed in today’s economy.

The Recipe for Success Has Changed

The second article dispels the myth of the “rural brain drain” by telling two stories. First the story of the smart rural people who never left. Second by telling the story of the people who left for the promise of something bigger beyond, who are not finding that the rules have changed. Young people are leaving school and there are not enough jobs to fill. Families are finding that the security and homes they built are slipping away with economic uncertainty. These people are looking for new opportunities for success and rural areas are part of the equation. (I would defer to Ben Winchester’s research on the “Brain Gain” to back up this point.)

The author of this article makes the point that rural communities saw the economic uncertainty before other areas – and one positive reaction has been the birth of the New Farmers – fueled by, “first, an increasing consumer preference for locally grown and organic food and second, the economic downturn and increased unemployment.”

While this article doesn’t mention technology, I read with technology-colored glasses, and I remember speaking with a “New Farmer” about her use of broadband. It was an essential utility for her. There were many things she was able to give up to start her new rural life, but broadband was not one of them.

Also I think that success in rural and urban areas requires a connection between the two worlds. There is a report from Minnesota Rural Partners that quantifies the economic connection between rural and urban Minnesota – but even more directly I think that broadband removes the barrier of geographic distance that in the past has also kept an economic distance between rural and urban. I think rural communities felt this first and not in a positive way. Consider local bookshops closing once Amazon emerged. But I think that local entrepreneurs are realizing that broadband goes both ways. Or at least those who have access to broadband are able to realize that it’s a two-way street, which brings us back to the original article. Broadband opens a new channel for commerce – but it also opens the door to accessing the information channels.

Using the arena’s Wi-Fi, the Minnesota Wild App enhances the fan experience during games at Xcel Energy Center with a number of unique features, including:

Food Ordering: Hungry fans can use this interactive feature to locate vendors throughout the Xcel Energy Center and even place food orders from their seats and be notified by text when their order is ready to be picked up. Xcel Energy Center is the first venue in the Twin Cities market to use this technology.

Live In-Stadium Instant Replays: Minnesota Wild fans attending a game at the Xcel Energy Center can access instant replays not shown on TV or the center-hung scoreboard.

Fan Zone: This feature provides integrated social networking that lets users inside the arena join groups, post updates and more.

Arena Guide: This venue map helps fans find what amenities are near their seats.

Additional features that are available to fans inside or outside the arena include:
Team Information and News: Sports fans at home and at the Xcel Energy Center can stay on top of their team with a player roster, stats and news right at their fingertips.

Access to Social Networking Sites: Easy access to the Minnesota Wild on Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare.

Events Calendar: Fans inside and outside the arena have access to a calendar of sponsored events at the arena.
MyWildNet: Games, arena information, replays and more can be accessed via the app.

“The Minnesota Wild App allows Wild fans to follow their team at an unprecedented level,” said Jim Ibister, Vice President, Facility Administration/General Manager, Saint Paul RiverCentre. “Whether at Xcel Energy Center or at home, fans can stay connected with latest Wild news and statistics at the touch of a fingertip.”

The Minnesota Wild App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

I won’t pretend like the replays would be a big hit with me – but anything that shortens the food line, has to be good!

Travis Fjeld’s new outlet store in Winnebago combines traditional second-hand and warehouse liquidation offerings with an array of Internet-based services for customers.

“Without the Internet access, we couldn’t do this in a small town,” said Fjeld of the community of 1,300.

He opened The Outlet Store on Main Street a few weeks ago. He sells other people’s items on consignment as well as warehouse liquidation inventory he purchases through online auctions.

I think it’s a nice example of economic development application of broadband – both for this individual business but for the community served by this business as well.