PROJECT INKWELL

My first love was (and is) Astronomy. I guess I got lost in outer space and ended up in cyberspace, because today my job is to build telescopes for the mind.

Much earlier - my first job in fact - while still a UBC student, was as a writer and special effects technician for the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver. What great fun that was, building contraptions and telling stories to render the wonders of the Universe, deus ex machina! I graduated to the real thing in 1980 when I became UBC's Director of Observatories, designing research and teaching programs for the geophysical and astronomical observatories on campus. I spent countless marvelled nights surveying the heavens, most often alone but always eager to share with anyone who dared, and I still only feel warmth when I look up on even the coldest, sparkling midnight moments.

During the 1980's the Internet began its own big bang on college campuses and I was captured by the compelling attractions of this new Universe. I was also designing teaching programs for UBC Continuing Education at this time, as well as in-service programs for science teachers, and I became convinced that the Internet was going to allow an unprecedented revolution in both knowledge and education (by the way, I'm still convinced of this - it will happen, trust me!).

To test this hypothesis I went to Science World in Vancouver in 1992 as Director of Science. Science World is a very innovative public science museum, and I figured it would be the perfect place to launch itself into schools and homes everywhere as a 'virtual science centre'. The first prototype we built was conceived on something called "Mosaic", for any Internet historians out there. Anyway, long before the dot.com chaos my little product attracted investment capital, so in 1995 I was able to tart a company called Brainium to pioneer interactive online products for K-12 education. Brainium's flagship product is the award-winning "Science Brainium", launched in British Columbia in 1997, across Canada in 1998 and internationally in 1999. In 2000 Brainium strategically merged with NTS Computers Ltd., developers of rugged, wireless Internet devices for K-12 EDucation.

Looking for another big dose of research and development, I left Brainium in 2002 for the New Media Innovation Centre in Vancouver. NewMIC is all about convergence - doing applied research on emerging wireless, broadband, rich media, and collaborative technologies to explore their impacts and potentials for human lifestyles. Very cool. Very fun. One of our best research programs is in eLearning, so this remains a great complement to my work with UBC Education and the David Robitaille Chair.I was truly honoured to be invited back to UBC with the Robitaille Chair. Lots of friends and very good people! One of the factors that motivated me was the conviction that we needed great improvements in teacher training in order to realize the potential of educational networking in classrooms. I wasn't looking for another Revolution, but I was hoping to understand teacher training well enough that my corporate experience and connections could provide useful benefits. It seems to be working. Besides having fun with teachers-to-be in science education classes, and helping design the online Masters in Education Technology program, I'm spending time with Dean Tierney and his team to build the relationships and infrastructure for systematic technology-based enhancements to teacher training and research across the Faculty of Education. It will come, and the Faculty's leadership here will be welcome across UBC and the province. I only wish I could do this more than part time!

I love being active in my community. Beyond UBC I remain enthusiastically involved with organizations such as Science World, New Media BC and Ronald McDonald House, and among a number of international connections I'm on the US National Academy of Science's Task Force to Improve Learning with Information Technology. It's a very full life, radiantly centred on wife Tracy and four stellar children. I consistently enjoy science, technology, big ideas, building anything, music, hiking, biking, and friends.

Please call on me if there's anything great or good we can do together!

SELECT HARDWARE PRODUCTS:

Brainium DreamMax (2001) - http://www.brainium.com
Portable, wireless (802.11b), rugged, CE-based student laptop and solutions.

UBC Coude Telescope (1984) - http://www.astro.ubc.ca/telescope/telescope.html
Commissioned new observatory dome, telescope, spectrograph & instrumentation.

SELECT SOFTWARE PRODUCTS:

Get Kid-Connected! (2001) - http://demo.brainium.com/ get connected Interactive multimedia B2B client-relationship primer and sales funnel.

Rick Hansen: Kids in Motion (2000) - http://rickhansenkids.com Interactive multimedia learning adventure for kids based on social responsibility.

Dogzilla vs. the Carbonator (2000) - http://demo.brainium.com/pearson Interactive multimedia learning adventure for kids based on global warming.

Science Brainium (1997) - http://us.brainium.com
Award-winning curriculum-based online learning system for grades 3-8 science.

SELECT PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT:

Engaging Science (1995) - http://www.scienceworld.bc.ca/
Multi-institutional joint venture for teacher professional development in British Columbia.

Scientists and Innovators in the Schools (1992) - http://www.scienceworld.bc.ca/
Award-winning national program matching volunteer scientists for classroom presentations.

Recreational Science at Loon Lake (1991) - http://www.scienceworld.bc.ca/
Award-winning national program providing wilderness retreats for science teachers.

BC Shad Valley Program (1986) - http://www.shad.ca/ubc.html
Founding director of the BC extension of this national program for super-achieving youth.

SELECT RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT:

Learning Window (2000-01) - Learnware National Research Competition, Ottawa Principal Investigator in consortium R&D project to create a Canadian learning portal.

Frameworks (1997-98) - CANARIE Strategic Development Program, Ottawa Principal Investigator of R&D project to develop multimedia Personalization technologies.

COECEE (1993-95) - CANARIE Strategic Development Program, Ottawa Convened an e-learning consortium to win the first national CANARIE Program competition.

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PROJECT INKWELL

A set of industry and education forces will convene in San Diego on December 10-12 to define a process and specifications for the achievement of 1-1 computing in K-12 education. The ratio in North America is about 10 students to 1 computer right now, and everyone knows that the intervening ratios of 6-1, 4-1, etc, will deliver marginal learning benefits at
enormous cost: educational transformation can only begin with 1-1. Yet nobody knows what 1-1 really looks like. Meanwhile, there is a growing backlash against the results of office technologies being offloaded into the classroom, including predictably high TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) together with questionable accountability gains. Deals like the recent USD $160M decision by Michigan to supply HP notebooks to every student (even at USD $300 apiece) simply aren't scalable.
The stakeholders realize that any sustainable solution is beyond the capacity of any single player. On the industry side, Intel, Sun, Dell, Palm, IBM, HP, Apple, Microsoft, TI, Nokia, Samsung and Sony are among the companies being represented at this first meeting. John Bailey from the Federal Department of Education will be there, along with representatives from leading school districts and research institutions. It seems that even the new Governator from California is trying to break free to join the session! The objective is to establish an open collective process, including research, development and field trials, to understand the value and feasibility of this destination while describing a roadmap to get there.
David Vogt is on the coordination team for PROJECT INKWELL. He welcomes all thoughts and contributions from UBC colleagues relative to this initiative.
Please use david.vogt@telus.net for email. Thanks!

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