1. Meta-Knowledge Skills students must already know to be effective learners Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 This is a segment of the draft version of a large syllabus. I need your feedback to improve it. There is a voice recorder capture your suggestions during the presentation.

2. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 2 Meta-knowledge has always included “Study Skills” How to take notes How to organize a paper How to use a library How to memorize –Math facts –Vocabulary –Historical facts

3. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 3 Stated most broadly, Meta-knowledge consists of the things you need to know to Locate information Acquire information Store information Generate information Format information Communicate information

4. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 4 Academic Meta-knowledge now largely involves automation Skills most students have mastered –Keyboarding –Calculators And skills with which they are acquainted –Word processing –Internet And skills they mostly lack –Spreadsheet computation and graphics –Document management –Image management –Using academic resources online

5. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 5 Meta-knowledge about automation is needed across Every academic subject Every level elementary through university Every workplace we prepare children to enter Household management tasks –Banking and financial transactions –Taxes and other interactions with government –Shopping –Communications

6. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 6 My Proposal: to teach this Meta- Knowledge to faculty and students Teachers universally recognize the need to know more “about computers” Most teaching “about computers” is from the perspective of types of computers and individual software packages My approach turns it the right way around: –First ask what needs to be done, then –Talk about how to do it

7. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 7 My background and qualifications Academic –Trustee/treasurer of St. Patrick’s and St. Andrews Schools –Sub and classroom teacher at MCPS, Burke and Field Schools –Grad student in Educational Statistics at University of Maryland Information management –Programmer/analyst since the '50s –PC user since their inception –Expert in many programming languages and software systems Subject area expertise –Writing skills: author of four books of computers, many articles –Math skills: BA from Berkeley, statistics grad work –Languages: Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and more –Science and social studies: Extensive reading, some teaching

8. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 8 What are my personal objectives in this? Find a fulfilling use of my experience and time in my retirement Learn by teaching: it is a broad topic, and every time I teach, I learn Assemble student and teacher coauthors and write a book on the subject (money enters the picture: I’d take royalties) If we identify a broad need, organize some coauthors into a company to address it

9. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 9 What kind of initial association do I want with the school? Focus first on teachers –Determine which topics are of greatest interest –Set up seminars on those topics –Work together to solve practical problems Work with teachers to set up offerings for students Work with librarians on research methods and tools

10. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 10 What could be our mid-range goals? With teachers, develop a curriculum and deliver meta-knowledge classes for students Collaborate with students and teachers in writing the book –Student authors are more likely to have the right “tone” for our audience –The publicity surrounding a student-written book would be wonderful for all concerned

11. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 11 What impact could my suggestions have on a school? Budget –Site license for OCR and PDF software Technology staff –More software to install and maintain –Increased use of scanners –Increased use of the web and email to post and collect homework assignments Librarian –More need to help students with catalog searches –Increased use of interlibrary loans –Help students manage electronic documents

12. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 12 What impact might it have on students’ families? Make it more imperative to have a PC at home (which they already do) Make broadband Internet connections more essential Create pressure to buy a few hundred dollars’ worth of software Potentially increase parents’ visibility into their children’s studies

13. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 13 How do we get started? See which departments are interested; most topics have some departmental focus Review the topics for relevance and revise the syllabus as necessary Schedule seminars –Half-hour to one hour once a week, with hands on exercises to be done independently –Establish office hours, email consultation on seminar-related and school-related issues

14. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 14 Conclusion That’s my pitch. Can we work together? Appendix: Two additional topics that are somewhat germane if there is time and interest –What is my long term vision for private schooling? –What behind-the-scenes preparations am I making to see this through?

15. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 15 What is my long-term vision for private schooling? Increasing demand for private education as…. –Public school prioritizes special needs over mainstream students –Egalitarian public school curricula offer less challenge –Public schools are enjoined from transmitting traditional values Improved reliability and increased use of subjective criteria for achievement –Oral Proficiency Interviews for language –Essays in the SAT and other assessments –AP exams as a criterion for college prep curriculum and instruction Internet diminishes isolation of the classroom teacher –Teleconferencing, recorded instruction, shared curricular materials –Less intrusive and more effective assessment Automated portfolios of student work Tools and teams to objectively assess material in portfolios

16. MetaKnowledge Overview Graham Seibert Copyright 2006 16 Elements of my plan Get hardware to handle demonstrations –Laptop with 1200x1600 resolution, about $600 –DLP Projector: XGA (1024 X 768), about $500 Buy Adobe Web Bundle to round out the suite of software on which I want to lecture Get a web site –Domain name Metaknowledge.edu? metaknowledge.org? –Uses of the web site As a reference site, showing our offerings Host a Password-protected download site for student materials Target for hyperlinks to classroom materials Host email for active participants