Getting Smart

by Tom Vander Ark

A comprehensive look at the promise and potential of online learning In our digital age, students have dramatically new learning needs and must be prepared for the idea economy of the future. In Getting Smart, well-known global education expert Tom Vander Ark examines the facets of educational innovation in the United States and abroad. Vander Ark makes a convincing case for a blend of online and onsite learning, shares inspiring stories of schools and programs that effectively offer "personal digital learning" opportunities, and discusses what we need to do to remake our schools into "smart schools."

Genres: Education, Technology, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 9, 2011

Reviews

[Jodi Lautenschlager · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the book Getting Smart: How Digital Learning Is Changing the World by Tom Vander Ark the key issue he discusses is how the educational system is going from a more traditional classroom setting to students beginning to take classes online as well as onsite also called the blended approach. The purpose is to understand that education is on the verge of going more towards a digital aspect, how it will work, the budget it may involve, and what the benefits will be from that. The author has written other books related to the same theme with education such as Better Together: How to Leverage School Networks for Smarter Personalized and Project-Based, Smart Parents: Parenting for Powerful Learning, and Smart Cities That Work for Everyone: 7 Keys to Education and Employment. He is also a speaker at conferences which included SXSWEdu and National Charter Schools Conference just to name a couple.
The chapters within the book were divided into the key components when bringing in the idea of an online education. The first couple of chapters give an overview of what personal digital learning is and then how the American Education system is working. The next chapters are approaching the idea of how to bring the online education system into play using the key ideas on Customization, Motivation, Equalization, Integration, Innovation, Investment, and Employment. The thing I thought was clever was that in each chapter on the sidelines were predictions. An example from the Customization chapter was:
PREDICTIONS
“In five years….
Most learning platforms will feature a smart recommendation engine, similar to iTunes Genius, that will build recommended learning experiences for students (pg. 40).”
This book was written and published in 2012 so five years from then would have been last year, 2017. It was neat to read the predictions and see if some of them have already become a reality or might be in the process of happening.
Within the chapter entitled “Motivation-Getting Everyone in the Learning Game”, it brought up the idea of Gamification and how students being educated in that aspect could stay motivated knowing they might be earning badges or working with other students around the world to make improvements in social innovation and real-life situations. Here’s an excerpt that opened the idea of motivations:
“Because we need kids to work hard, we need a much more sophisticated and individualized sense of what will capture students’ attention and cause them to persist through discomfort and distraction. Our ability to quickly and efficiently get and use a deep understanding of the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that together cause focused and persistent behavior in each student-will fundamentally change education and the learning professions (pg. 48).”
I thought that all the chapters flowed well together and were the building blocks for the next chapter to come. This book was an easy read and I agreed with a lot of what the author, Mr. Ark had to say. Here I am about six years after this book was published and taking classes online as an adult to achieve a Masters Degree. The only thing that would concern me is losing the classroom setting altogether as we get further along into the future. This was discussed within chapter 9 entitled “Employment-Changing Our Job Descriptions”. I love being in the classroom and interacting with my students and can’t see myself just teaching online and working from home. Here’s the opening excerpt from this chapter that made me think about how far I really would want technology to go in terms of the teacher’s perspective:
“Personal digital learning won’t just change the experience of students in K-12 education, it will fundamentally change the lives and work of those people who are in any way engaged in supporting and educating children. New pathways to learning are expanding the number of jobs and the type of jobs that promote learning; at the same time, innovations in learning technology are creating more opportunities for edupreneurs to create new tools and schools (143).”
I can see how more online schools being available to students could create more jobs for teachers, but then again what about that face to face instead of just from a screen daily. This is one chapter from the book I was a little skeptical about.
Overall, I recommend reading this book since we are in such a digital world and will continue to be so in the direction that education is going. It was intriguing and beneficial for the fellow educator. The last excerpt I will include is from the conclusion section of the book:
“The learning revolution under way is the shift from print to digital, lectures to interaction, testing to instant feedback, classes to individuals, schools to anywhere (158).”
The digital world is amongst us and we as teachers will need to come up with “customized playlists”, as the author calls the curriculum, that will benefit each student to their ability so that they can succeed as their pace. This book was a real eye opener and helped put this idea of digital learning more into perspective.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The following review is entirely my own views and opinions and does not necessarily reflect those of Hayden School District.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. There are parts that I found particularly insightful and inspiring. For example, I like Vander Ark's suggestion that schools should use technology to make education more personalized to the needs of each individual student. He mentions learning software that tracks not only progress, but also learning styles, and uses that information to recommend a "playlist" of the most needed/effective material and practices. Such software would certainly revolutionize the way education is conducted in America.

He also suggests that advancement in education (i.e. how students move from one grade level to another) should be based on mastery rather than years. He compares advancing through the school system to getting merit badges in Boy Scouts, where a student would be required to show mastery of a skill or concept but may choose several different paths to get there. This would certainly address the needs of higher level students who might master skills very quickly and become bored in a traditional school system. It also addresses the frustration of lower level students who are simply "pushed through" to the next year, regardless of their skill or level of mastery.

However, I think that Vander Ark is perhaps a little too optimistic when it comes to student self motivation. There would absolutely be some students who would thrive in an environment where they were given independence to work and research at their own pace with the teacher as a "guide" rather than all knowing sage. For those students, technology is opening exciting new doors. They have a world of information and learning opportunity at their fingertips. With access to mobile devices, students can download an app to learn almost any new skill that they would like to acquire. However, for the vast majority of students, especially at the middle school level, I feel like they would not use their time or available technology to its fullest. Having seen middle school students who bring iPads to school, I can say that there are some who use it to enhance and help their education. There are others who use it to beat their friend in "Angry Birds." And contrary to popular assumptions, that distinction is not necessarily based on achievement level. There are those struggling students who use their mobile devices as a portable tutor to help them study. There are also gifted students who use their mobile devices as a distraction from their work. I think that a fully digital classroom, one without adult guidance and supervision, would quickly devolve into unproductive time. Perhaps instead we should be looking more heavily to implement what Vander Ark refers to as "blended schools," with a mix of technology and traditional classroom time.

Speaking of traditional classroom time, I also worry that Vander Ark underestimates the value of the classroom community for developing learners. I have seen that students who otherwise might have ignored a topic will become engaged when they are involved in a fast paced and exciting classroom environment. While some of that involves content delivery, more of it relies on the subtler aspects of the classroom community such as use of space, movement, and face to face interaction between students and the teacher. Building anticipation, enthusiasm and curiosity involve more than just what content is given, but in charismatic delivery. That would be hard to replicate in a completely digital environment.

I appreciate that Vander Ark's book looks to the future. I agree that innovation and flexibility are needed in America's school system. I can't help but agree that technology is changing the way that students learn, and indeed the way that the world will interact. To deny or attempt to avoid such change is not only delusional, but ill advised. However, I think that we should not forsake the gains that we have made in the classroom in the name of innovation. Instead of scrapping America's school system in favor of a completely new model, why not incorporate new ideas and innovation into the things we already do well and use technology to address areas of shortcoming?

[Samuel Lubell · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had some good ideas but I would have liked a more in-depth analysis of some of the schools briefly profiled. I've taught computers and programmed educational software, admittedly 20 years ago, but doubt that much has changed. In the right hands technology can make education more interesting but a lot of what he describes here just seems to be higher tech versions of the animated worksheets I knew.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

awful lot of examples of how great charter schools are. but I do agree with the premise that education is available to everyone with the wherewithal to go get it for themselves, instead of waiting to be given it.

[Teppo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating ideas but sometimes read more like a list of ideas, not a fluid narrative.

[Karlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Digital learning is here to stay! We need to embrace it in education.

[Jessica Oballo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend.....and not just because it was written by my good friend, Caroline Vander Ark's, father!! Tom Vander Ark writes about the importance of digital learning.

[Brett · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is cheer-leading more than anything else. There are some anecdotes, but pretty much vacuous.