Great student centric initiatives are popping up. Udacity is one of the greatest! #pedagogic

Sebastian Thrun, was great in this DLD video on YouTube. I had heard the story earlier, but it was impressive to get it from himself. My takes runs like that:


Sebastian was a sucessful lecturer on Stanford University on robotics. He was so successful that his class held 200 students, while it's normal with 20-30. The last course he held was on Artificial Intelligence. Inspired by Khan Academy, we asked to have his course online, and free. He awaited 500 students. 160 thousand signed up, from 190 different countries! He needed 2000 voluntaries to help him translate and correct the homework.


Here is the video (in flash, sorry)


When he gave the presentation, the course had completed. This course changed Sebastian's life, and he went on to found udacity.com which states:

We believe university-level education can be both high quality and low cost. Using the economics of the Internet, we've connected some of the greatest teachers to hundreds of thousands of students all over the world.

Sebastian has got a whole company running and financed, and are now inviting students to two courses, one on search engine programming and another on robotics.


After working to understand disruption in education, it was a chock to see this. It came so fast, and is so great. I think this is the third disruptive tool I've seen the last year; first it was Kahn Academy, the second was iTunes U and Author.


How lucky we are, young and old, all around the world, that we have these possibilities to learn!

Oppdatert: "Forstyrr klassen" @ClayChristensen om innovasjon i offentlig skole

"Disrupting Class" er en bok av bl.a. Clayton M. Christensen. Han er professor på Harvard Business School i USA og har arbeidet med "Disruptive Innovation Technology" som på norsk blir "Forstyrrende innovasjon teknologi".

Disruption, som jeg oversetter med forstyrrelse, har også andre mulige synonymer på norsk; banebrytende, revolusjonerende, skjell-settende og foruroligende. I Clays sammenheng dreier det seg om nye produkter eller tjenester som forstyrrer noe som allerede eksisterer. Tenk bare på hvor raskt mobilen har fått den røde telefonkiosken til å forsvinne!

Jeg blitt kjent med denne "forstyrrende innovasjon teknologi" gjennom Horace Dediu i asymco.com. Han har vært student under Clay, og deltar i Forum for Growth and Innovation. Horace bruker teknologien for å analysere Apple.

Hovedverket til Clay er "The Innovators Dilemma" eller "Innovatørens dilemma". Jeg bet meg merke i tittelen siden det var den eneste boken Steve Jobs omtalte til sin biograf. Dette er en fantastisk bok for alle som er opptatt av innovasjon.

Jeg har en kone som er svært engasjert og involvert i pedagogikk, så da jeg så tittelen "Disrupting Class" blandt Clays bøker, skjønte jeg det kunne være noe for henne. Og da er veien kort til bloggen min.
"Forstyrrende klasse-modell" har 9 kapitler. Jeg tenker meg en blogpost for hvert kapittel. Her er de engelske tittelene:

1. Why Schools Struggle to Teach Differently When Each Studen Learns Differently
2. Making the Shift: Schools Meets Society's Jobs
3. Crammed Classroom Computers
4. Disruptively Deploying Computers
5. The System For Student-Centric Learning
6. The Impact of the Earliest Years on Student's Success
7. Why so many Students seems Unmotivated
8. Improving Education Research
9. Organizing to Innovate
10. Conclusion

Jeg kommer til å forsøke å oversette titlene i hver enkelt post.

Følg med på en interessant reise innenfor pedagogikk og innovasjon

Hva barnets første leveår betyr for dets læringsevne. Kap. 6 i Disrupting Class av @ClayChristensen #pedagogikk

Tre elementer som må bringes frem hos barnet før det begynner på skolen:
- Skape intellektuell kapasitet
- Kultivering av selvfølelse
- Stimulering av evnen til nysgjerrighet


Todd Risley og Betty Hart har funnet at "pratsomme" foreldre sier 2100 ord i timen til barnet sitt. Barn i ressurssvake familier, får derimot høre bare 600 ord i timen.


Hva som værre er, inneholdet for de siste er for det meste beskjeder; som spis opp, gå å legg deg osv. Blant de snakksome foreldrene er det mer voksen samtale og forklaring, ofte isdedd med "Hva ville du gjort hvis…" til barnet. Christensen betegner denne samtaleformen med barnet som "dans med ord".


Den gode nyheten er at disse resultatene ikke skyldes klasse, inntekt eller rase. Så Christensen gir håp, når han foreslår at skolen må lære opp kommende mødre, både i ungdom og videregående, slik at de kan bryte ut uheldige familie-mønstre.


Det som derimot ikke virker, er småbarn- og babybarnehager. For å lære barn og "danse med ord", trengs det kontinuerlig en til en undervisning med en som har barnets tillit. Og det er synes bare mulig i hjemmet.

System for elevsentrert læring - kap. 5 i Disrupting Class av @ClayChristensen #pedagogikk

Clay Christensen beskriver programvare som er modulær, og så enkel at både foreldre, lærere og elever kan lage læremidler. Foreldrene kan lage noe for barna sine og lærerne kan lage læremidler for sin klasse og klasser på andre skoler.


CC forventer at hele verdikjeden i undervisning vil endres; både skoler, myndigheter og læremiddelprodusenter. Han ser også dette som en forutsetning for skikkelig nyskapning. Han anbefaler derfor at det settes opp egne enheter med elevsentrert undervisning. Med tiden vil disse enhetene inkluderes i den vanlige skolen.


Tre typer av næringsvirksomhet:
- Løsninger
- Tilleggsverdier
- Tilrettelagte nettverk


Til den første hører konsultasjon, men også spesialundervisning. De fleste skoler hører til den andre typen. Produksjon og distribusjon av elevsentrerte læremidler vil imidlertid foregå etter en nettverksmodell.


Christensen diskuterer også mulige plattformer for læremidlene og nevner noen spesifikke produkter som var interessante for 5 år siden.

Redaktørens kommentar: Mens jeg har skrevet disse kommentarene til "Disrupting Class" har Apple kommet med sin plattform for elevbasert læring; iBooks 2, iTunes U og iBooks Author. Den siste gjør det like enkelt å lage lærebøker som å bruke Word eller Powerpoint. De andre gjør det mulig å distribuere, både gratis og betalt, til eget barn, egen klasse eller hele verden.

#Apple Q1: @asymco graphs makes my heart sing!

I love numbers, but I love beautiful graphs even more. The master of Apple graphs is, in my opinion, Horace Dediu in asymco.com, where you find a lot more. He has now updated Apple's scorecard, and I love to put in my blog!

Updated: Apple and their Chinese workers; and how China reacted on NYT allegations.

Update: There have been reaction to the NY Times article in China. They point to other American companies, which are hiring way more abusive contractors. One state:

If people saw what kind of life workers lived before they found a job at Foxconn, they would come to an opposite conclusion of this story: that Apple is such a philanthropist. - Zhengchu1982

Original: The Western world manufacture most of it's goods in China. Apple also does that. And for Apple as well for all other brands using China in manufacturing, there is an ethical dilemma; Chinese workers has horrible working conditions in comparison to workers in the West - and they are paid quite low.


This is old news. Apple has joined the Fair Labor Association, and filed the first report recently. The report describes the problems they have discovered, and how they are trying to resolve it.


It's ironical and unfair to criticize Apple, just when they are speeding up the effort to minimize bad working conditions.


A letter to Apple's employees from Tim Cook are sited in 9to5mac.com:

"We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do — and never have done — is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word. You can follow our progress at apple.com/supplierresponsibility."

Why not support Apple's effort and instead take a look at Chinese and Korean companies like ZTE and Samsung?

Laughable comments from the Verge and TechCrunch, trying to bully Apple, again...

The Verge and TechCrunch both managed to spin bullying comments on Apple today. After Apple shocked the market, someone still want to spread laughable contents. I don't know if I should laugh or cry. I just feel sad!

Here's the headlines:

The Verge: 7.6m iPhones sold, Android sales growingTechCrunch: AT&T Set Sales Records For Both iPhone And Android

Shame on you, both!

Apple's State of the Union and "The Innovators Dilemma" @ClayChristensen

The Newyorker: Laurene Powell Jobs

Seeing Steve Jobs wife listening to Obama's homage to her husband in The NewYorker, inspired me to write.
Apple is now earning about the same amount as the Norwegian Goverment on oil and taxes. We're five million inhabitants. Compare that to the fifty thousand working in Apple. Apple makes hundred times what the richest goverment in the world.


So somehow Apple financial conference call is their State of the Union. And it's equally important to the rest of the world. I would actually say more important.


Apple has, as the first company I'm aware of, solved what Clay Christensen named "The Innovators Dilemma". 


I took a train-trip to Oslo yesterday, and tried to elaborate this, writing on Notes on my iPhone. But looking at it today, it's not that good. It's difficult stuff to express. But I try again:


Clay Christensen lays out three rules for product innovation in the case study, telling that the product must be:
- Simple, reliable and convenient
- A platform in which feature, function, and styling changes can be made quickly and at low cost
- Have a low prize point


Adding the way Apple seems to attract "Nonconsumption" by exploring new markets, and the press and competitors ignorance and joking about their products, I see Apple fulfilling a lot of Christensens disruptive innovation "template". Finally there is of course the proof of the pudding: the numbers. The financial numbers Apple released Tuesday show explosive growth. So I add these three points:
- Noncomsumption
- Press, competitors and market analyst ignorance
- Explosive growth


Sitting in the train, I spotted both iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air as product which could fit the template. And I would add iBooks Author and Apple TV as well. The last two are in the coming however. And that's only cover some of Apple's recent products.


I need more thinking, reading and writing though. Do you have recent Apple products you want to add. Or do you have any comments to my "innovation template"?


I keep you posted!

#Apple Q1 reporting: My tweets and initial comment

Photo from Apple.com

I still feel overwhelmed after the Apple' conference call for 2012 Q1 last night. I'm repeating 37 million iPhones sold to myself, over and over, and don't get it. Their best-selling phone is the 4S 64G! And according to CEO Tim Cook, Apple didn't even notice Amazon Fire on their radar!

This is very amazing news. It will clearly impact most of us, since Apple just now is the most valuable company in the US. But I will have to digest this some days...

Well, here are the tweets I did send out when the result was released and during the conference call. They were numbers or cites I considered important:

• Apple reported a record $13.06 billion for its fiscal first quarter of 2012 - via @jdalrymple
• Revenue Of $46.3 Billion, 37 Million iPhones Sold - via TechCrunch
• 15M iPads - via Gizmodo
• $13.87 per diluted share. 
• Gross margin was 44.7 percent, compared to 38.5 percent last year via - MacRumors
• twitter Apple announces Q1 2012 earnings, sells a record-breaking 37 million iPhones | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog - mjac.me/wE2Ny5
• 5.2 million Macs (26% unit growth)
• Here's Apple Q1- Press Info - mjac.me/xhs1yI
• iPhone more than doubled the sale from last quarter - from 17 to 37 million phones!
• Apple added $38 billion in cash last year | asymco - 
• over 600,000 copies of iBooks Author have been downloaded since last Thursday- via Ars Liveblog: mjac.me/y3T8DV
• 315 million cumulative iOS device sales
• iCloud is "off to a great start" with more than 85 million customers as of today
• Apple Store almost 22,000 visitors per store, per week
• Tim Cook: We attribute it to a "breathtaking" customer reception, iOS 5, Siri, incredible camera with advanced optics.
• Cook: We could not be happier. We thought we were betting bold, but we didn't bet high enough.
• twitter I'm certainly not alone w/ 64Gb! RT “@asymco: iPhone 4S was the most popular iPhone. High "mix" of the higher priced products.”
• In terms of components, in general the component environment is favorable. 1 of the elements that let us over-achieve on margins
• Don't know what to say, not what to think. My wife is sleeping and want to dance!
• My favorite $Apple TV sold 1.4M in Q1. 4.2 last fiscal year. Cook: It's still a hobby ;)
• I feel the need for strong words! MG Siegler @parislemon is brilliant: • A "Holy Fucking Shit" Quarter - mjac.me/x4Y29B
• Cook: When I looked at the data in the US on a weekly basis after Amazon launched the Kindle Fire, there wasn't an obvious effect
• Cook: we continue to believe that there's much MORE cannibalization of Windows PCs by the iPad
• Cook: ... we see the iPhone be a catalyst and the iPad comes after the iPhone, and in several accounts, the Mac follows that

Less than 2 hours to Apple 2.0's Q1 2012 "Whisper" Numbers @parislemon

MG Siegler in Parislemon are reporting Philip Elmer-DeWitt's compilation of 6 different analysts.

If he’s close, my prediction from October 18 (the day Apple announced Q4 numbers) that this quarter would not only be Apple’s first $30 billion quarter, but first $40 billion quarter, looks very good. Elmer-DeWitt’s numbers have revenues coming in at a cool $42.76 billion. 

Such a number would constitute a massive blow-out. Apple’s previous revenue record is $28.57 billion, hit in Q3 2011. Again, if the numbers hold, Apple could see a quarter almost exactly 50% better than their previous record quarter. That would be insane.

∑ Insanely fun, and in less than 2 hours I will report from the Apple telephone financial result conference! I will tweet during the conference, and later publish a compilation of the tweets.