The Welding Simulator

On Tuesday, Charlie and I had a great meeting in Cleveland where I fell in love with a welding simulator. To me, this machine was the real deal. It looked like a welding machine and the feel was the same. The difference was you could do all your training and more without  getting burned.  

Here’s what the company Lincoln Electric says about the machine:

“Lincoln Electric (Cleveland) has developed the VRTEX 360 virtual welding system. The Virtual Reality Arc Welding (VRAW) training solution provides a “virtual” hands-on training experience. The virtual-reality training also provides real-time, welding-technique feedback similar to a video game to trainers and students. The VRTEX 360 feeds computer-generated data with a virtual welding gun and helmet equipped with internal monitors. The student practices welding in virtual environments, including simulated welding-booth training environments or field-welding applications. Training using the VRTEX 360 can be conducted in various settings, including classrooms, an important consideration especially for schools and training centers with limited resources and shop space. The virtual welding system also saves energy and reduces the use of costly materials.”

This machine is addictive. If you put it in a bar, you could make a fortune. Students will love it. You could teach a 7-year old to weld, not to mention that it’s great for eye-hand coordination for young and old. When we watched the demo, it showed what welders need to read in order to start and finish an order. The real-world literacy is there. The math is there. This machine saves money and time and is efficient and greener than other trainings. This is where virtual reality and school need to go. It is a pure performance assessment that schools should take note of. I think I’m starting to sound like those infomercial guys who sell vegamatics. I better stop now.

From Cleveland I met Dennis at the New School Ventures Funds (NSVF) Summit for the one-day event. This meeting had about 600 people. Included in the mix were school entrepreneurs, policy makers, and funders. It’s always good to see a lot of friends I rarely see but once a year at this meeting. We all ask ourselves how we get invited, but we are glad for the opportunity to get together. Then, there is another group of people we never interact with and its good to hear what they have to say as well.  

Arnie Duncan and Congressman George Miller addressed the crowd. Every NSVF speaker, and there were many, stayed on the NSVF message which was close the achievement gap using only written test measures. The good news is No child left behind is gone but instead of Rigor, Relevance and Relationships, small and innovative, we have common core standards, results, effectiveness, transparency and repetition, repetition, repetition.

One keynote speaker quoted a board member of NSVF, saying he always reminds her group “Repetition is the mother of all learning.” Wait a minute …. hmm???? Stop the music on this one. To set the record straight, this is actually an old Latin phrase. Remember Latin? Now some repetition is good but the “mother of all learning?” It may be good for parts of learning. It’s good for indoctrination and certainty but I didn’t know we were indoctrinating our kids and that the world was such a certain place. This is conjuring up catechism and reminds me of a story told to me 20 years ago by a friend who was a mathematics professor at Rockefeller University. At a school parent conference, his daughter’s 2nd grade teacher told him that he didn’t understand math at all. She told him, “Math is nothing but repetition, repetition, repetition.” She didn’t know who he was and we laughed but this isn’t so funny.

There were all sorts of more subtle ironies at this meeting. People referring to the tests as ‘those silly tests” but taking them seriously or the communications people telling the audience not to repeat their message because people will get bored, but repetition is once again the learning method du jour.  Do you think so? I think their communications people should do a presentation to their board. Then, there was the sanitized version of the history of the civil rights movement where all people of color agreed with King, coupled with language around full transparency.

I hope something opens up somewhere soon around some real learning, some deep learning, some ability to argue and debate, but right now this angle on schooling has gained momentum with Congress, the DOE, states, and districts. At the conference they attempted to make the testing into a civil rights issue of the day. If they haven’t noticed we’ve had testing for 50 years and still don’t have equity. There’s way more to it up for serious consideration.

This was a very different conversation than ones we have at our meetings. The assessments and learning methods were very different. I learned a lot by attending this meeting about content and format and our own ironies we probably create. Interesting times....

Please feel free to send me your thoughts, comments, reactions, or suggestions. I would love to hear from you!

Comments

[sammy]

Was Lil Wayne speaking at NSVF?!? Check out this 30 second excerpt from a recent documentary about him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UYaLjGrgz8

You can catch the full documentary here:

http://globalgrind.com/channel/culture/content/1151984/The-Carter-Documentary-Full/

And my review of it, here:

http://husslingtonpost.com/portrait-of-an-artist-the-carter-documentary/

Thanks for another interesting post,

sam