How IBM's jaw-dropping classroom of the future will 'learn' you

IBM's vision for the classroom five years from now is wrong on so many levels. When I came across this infographic and the accompanying video today my jaw dropped.

I added the numbers to the graphic above and keyed my bullets below to them to help unpack what the good folks at International Business Machines are thinking. But you'll quickly see many more flaws than I can point out. And if you're insulted by the six copy points in the graphic, just wait till you click on the video below.

1) Yes, the classroom will "learn" you - providing you are a student lucky enough to participate in Big Blue's dream of grabbing a utopian chunk of the world's public education pie. This "classroom" of which they speak? Basically, it's a hardware/software/cloud combo IBM wants to sell your school division after its research project with Gwinnett County Public Schools, the 14th largest school district in the US, is complete.

2) Now, what Dr. Frase is really saying here is the classroom will learn about every student in your class, providing you enter copious amounts of standardized test and other data (the more numbers the better) about them and brief the software about their aptitudes and learning preferences. Notice, too, that this not-quite-human helper will actually provide you with a tailored curriculum for each student from kindergarten all the way through high school until they get their first job at McDonalds. Hmm.

3) If you thought "The classroom of the future" was some corny Popular Science / Jetsons / 1950's news reel fabrication, not so fast. Consider that this classroom will be so darn smart, it will help your kids master skills critical to meeting their goals. Not to make light of students genuine interests and desires, but it's only the kids goals that count right? Not yours, their parents or even Society's. But can hardware and software even DO that? Looks like the classroom of the future can.

4) This classroom is so clever, in fact, that it will substantially lighten your load by developing a syllabus based on every child's learning style and pace. Sure, you may have to push a few buttons and stuff, but that classroom computer will do the real grunt work. And you know that flipped classroom experiment? Well, this will be even better because now your students will be able to learn everything on their terms and their schedule.

5) Now, read carefully here. If there's anything getting in the way of any of your young charge's educations right now - hunger, poverty, gangs, violence, teen pregnancy, a bad home life - the system will take make these barriers less of a deal in how they do in school. Yup.

6) Finally, if you're wondering what exactly will fuel this magical helper of yours? Why, numbers of course. And don't feel too insulted when you read that last paragraph. IBM knows things like identifying kids most at risk and finding measures to overcome their challenges are really your job. But they also know you could use a hand from their version of Hal.

Ok, your thoughts? Have you ever seen a more clumsy attempt by a multinational to engineer its way into heavier profits at the expense of good pedagogy and teacher autonomy? Now, we know IBM will have to duke it out with ed behemoth Pearson and other players for market share, but can you get more disingenuous and disrespectful? Is it really a matter of sitting back, punching in the numbers and reaping the benefits of individualized machine-generated curricula for students? Is this really a vision for the future, five years out?

As you watch the video below, you'll form more impressions. Mine actually boil down to a simple question. Honestly IBM, who do you think you are?

Your thoughts, dear reader, would be most welcome.

The Joy of Helping a Teacher Bounce Back

When we drove the streets hardest hit by the Minot flood we entered a wasteland of abandoned homes, abandoned belongings, and - in many cases - abandoned dreams.

No one washing their cars, weeding their gardens, blasting their stereos or heading for the convenience store. No families out for bike rides, no one walking their dogs - not a pet in sight. No kids playing hop-scotch or running through sprinklers.

No usual Saturday hustle - just quiet desolation.

We were confronted with street after street of empty homes, all bearing outdoor scars of where the badly behaved Souris River ravaged their contents and turned Home Sweet Home into financial headaches for thousands.

Answering the call

We were all answering the call of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to clean out these houses - rip out every wet sofa, tear down every soaked wall, remove every carpet, every bloated hardwood floor, every heavy appliance, literally anything that had been touched and tainted by the water. It all had to go, right down to the studs, and be piled on the front property along the street so the owners could rebuild.

Everything touched by the Souris flood waters had to to be piled out front.

You couldn't help but feel for the owners, most of whom were advised against getting flood insurance, and who were now taking shelter with family and relatives anywhere but in the homes on which they were still paying mortgages.

So, when we and 300 other Mormons rolled into the parking lot of the Latter-day Saint Chapel - from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana - we were amazed.

The Church turned the chapel into a command centre that operated for weeks, filled with food, equipment, generators and everything needed to tackle the mess. We supplied the labour.

I'm a lot more comfortable writing press releases than wielding a hammer.

Shouldn't wrecking things be easier?
The Church is big on organization. Our organizers, Brother and Sister Ludlow from Thousand Oaks, California, had just finished wrapping up a similar project in Joplin, Missouri, and didn't have time to go home before being called to do the same work in Minot.

They put us into groups of 10 and we fanned out to clean or "gut" as we called it, the homes.

Usually, this could be done in one back-breaking day. Ours took the weekend. Many of us had office jobs - a few were handy, and the work we would do would be valued at anywhere from $8,000 to $20,000 depending on the home. But we wouldn't have taken a dime for our work.

The first day's shift was 10.5 hrs. I was whipped after the first two - or thought so at least. It was a hot day and the masks we wore because of the possibility of inhaling mould felt were like breathing through a scarf. I was surprised at how hard it was to "destroy" a home. Shouldn't wrecking things be a lot easier?

But like most things in life, you don't know what you can do until you push yourself. My second and third wind came. By the end of the day, I was whipped but very satisfied. The coolest part of the whole project - the thing that made it even more worthwhile than I knew it would be was this... 

Meeting Kelly and Sarah
Kelly Warren is a K-12 special ed teacher who lives with her two-year-old son and her mother Sarah. Coming face to face with Kelly and Sarah was such a wonderful feeling. The fact that Kelly was a teacher was especially gratifying to me since I work for a teachers' union and they always have my respect.

Kelly and Sarah filled us in on the flood, the evacuation - all the details surrounding this major trauma in her life as a first-year teacher. We were so relieved to know that she had signed a contract in a neighbouring town 40 miles away and that it came complete with teacher accommodations.

Both Kelly and Sarah expressed heartfelt appreciation for the work we did and followed it up with this warm and thoughtful email.

"Sending out a heartfelt thank-you from Minot from Sarah and Kelly Warren! When left with only words to try to convey our gratitude, I am left feeling inadequate to say the least. Your group and their cheerful and giving attitude doing such "dirty" work was very uplifting and helpful at this glitch in our road. Your help gave us a much-needed surge of energy to take steps forward instead of feeling paralyzed by this overwhelming situation. Thanks again and I have no doubt that your impact on us and Minot will be felt for years to come."

But the folks in Minot, including Kelly and Sarah, aren't out of the woods yet. They have so much work to do. We imagine the pressures at this point are intense. That's why we were so happy to have had a small part in opening up the possibility that they can rebuild their home.

Three hundred volunteers in 99 tents camped around the LDS Chapel.

Happy to serve
We left Minot Sunday afternoon with some minor aches and pains, but our hearts were definitely full. We had definitely pushed ourselves beyond our comfort zone. We had helped a wonderful family do what they couldn't do for themselves - in a very small way, like what our Saviour did for us.

We felt blessed to provide service to people who needed it badly. Of 4,100 homes affected, the Church cleaned out 570.

I love Sarah's closing comments in the short interview I grabbed above. "If anything comes out of this whole flood, maybe it's just a realization that we're all connected and that to work together is a wonderful thing - and to just stay positive."

That's a wonderful message to take away from this project.

Stay positive, Kelly and Sarah. It was a privilege to meet you.