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Bradford Saron

Chris Hedges: Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System - Chris Hedges' ... - 0 views

  • A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns out stunted human products, lacking the capacity and vocabulary to challenge the assumptions and structures of the corporate state. It funnels them into a caste system of drones and systems managers. It transforms a democratic state into a feudal system of corporate masters and serfs.
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    Via @mcleod
Vince Breunig

Will · "We Love Schools." Say it. - 1 views

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    So let's say it: We love schools. And we have an obligation to fight, to educate, to advocate in whatever way we can to make sure more people fully understand the problem that corporate driven, narrowly framed, assessment driven "reform" is not what is in the best interest of our children or our society. And it doesn't matter that we sometimes feel hopelessness in the moment. We can't change it with inaction and acceptance. That's just not a valid choice. 
Bradford Saron

The Political Power of Social Media | Foreign Affairs - 0 views

  • The event marked the first time that social media had helped force out a national leader.
  • How does the ubiquity of social media affect U.S. interests, and how should U.S. policy respond to it?
  • social media have become coordinating tools for nearly all of the world's political movements, just as most of the world's authoritarian governments (and, alarmingly, an increasing number of democratic ones) are trying to limit access to it.
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  • New media conducive to fostering participation can indeed increase the freedoms Clinton outlined, just as the printing press, the postal service, the telegraph, and the telephone did before.
  • Despite this basic truth -- that communicative freedom is good for political freedom -- the instrumental mode of Internet statecraft is still problematic.
  • THE THEATER OF COLLAPSE
  • Opinions are first transmitted by the media, and then they get echoed by friends, family members, and colleagues. It is in this second, social step that political opinions are formed. This is the step in which the Internet in general, and social media in particular, can make a difference. As with the printing press, the Internet spreads not just media consumption but media production as well -- it allows people to privately and publicly articulate and debate a welter of conflicting views.
  • This condition of shared awareness -- which is increasingly evident in all modern states -- creates what is commonly called "the dictator's dilemma" but that might more accurately be described by the phrase coined by the media theorist Briggs: "the conservative dilemma," so named because it applies not only to autocrats but also to democratic governments and to religious and business leaders. The dilemma is created by new media that increase public access to speech or assembly; with the spread of such media, whether photocopiers or Web browsers, a state accustomed to having a monopoly on public speech finds itself called to account for anomalies between its view of events and the public's. The two responses to the conservative dilemma are censorship and propaganda. But neither of these is as effective a source of control as the enforced silence of the citizens. The state will censor critics or produce propaganda as it needs to, but both of those actions have higher costs than simply not having any critics to silence or reply to in the first place. But if a government were to shut down Internet access or ban cell phones, it would risk radicalizing otherwise pro-regime citizens or harming the economy.
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    The power of being digitally social, this is an example in the political arena. This is also what Clay Shirky is talking about in a Cognitive Surplus. This is the power of people collaborating and sharing without consideration of cost, distance, time, copyright, law, etc. Do we want to teach children how to ethically participate in this type of environment? Or, just let them go without any skills or discipline?
Vince Breunig

Effects of Inequality and Poverty vs. Teachers and Schooling on America's Youth - 0 views

  • What does it take to get politicians and the general public to abandon misleading ideas, such as, “Anyone who tries can pull themselves up by the bootstraps,” or that “Teachers are the most important factor in determining the achievement of our youth”? Many ordinary citizens and politicians believe these statements to be true, even though life and research informs us that such statements are usually not true.
  • till further discouraging news for those who advocate testing as a way to reform schools comes from the PISA assessments (The Program for International Student Assessment). Nations with high-stakes testing have generally gone down in scores from 2000 to 2003, and then again by 2006. Finland, on the other hand, which has no high-stakes testing, and an accountability system that relies on teacher judgment and school level professionalism much more than tests, has shown growth over these three PISA administrations (Sahlberg, 2011).
  • Now, in the USA, our parents are a greater determiner of our income in life than either our weight or our height.
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  • what the best and wisest parents want for their children should be what we want for all children. Thus, that same kind of opportunity to catch up in school should not be denied to youth who come from poorer families
  • citizens calling for school reform without thinking about economic and social reforms are probably being foolish. The likelihood of affecting school achievement positively is more likely to be found in economic and social reforms, in the second bill of rights, than it is in NCLB, the common core of standards, early childhood and many assessments after that, value-added assessments, and the like. More than educational policies are needed to improve education.
  • I think everyone in the USA, of any political party, understands that poverty hurts families and affects student performance at the schools their children attend. But the bigger problem for our political leaders and citizens to recognize is that inequality hurts everyone in society, the wealthy and the poor alike. History teaches us that when income inequalities are large, they are tolerated by the poor for only so long. Then there is an eruption, and it is often bloody! Both logic and research suggest that economic policies that reduce income inequality throughout the United States are quite likely to improve education a lot, but even more than that, such policies might once again establish this nation as a beacon on a hill, and not merely a light that shines for some, but not for all of our citizens.
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    What does it take to get politicians and the general public to abandon misleading ideas, such as, "Anyone who tries can pull themselves up by the bootstraps," or that "Teachers are the most important factor in determining the achievement of our youth"? Many ordinary citizens and politicians believe these statements to be true, even though life and research informs us that such statements are usually not true. citizens calling for school reform without thinking about economic and social reforms are probably being foolish. The likelihood of affecting school achievement positively is more likely to be found in economic and social reforms, in the second bill of rights, than it is in NCLB, the common core of standards, early childhood and many assessments after that, value-added assessments, and the like. More than educational policies are needed to improve education.
Bradford Saron

It's time to be proactive « Duh! - 1 views

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    Accept it, embrace it, plan for it. 
Bradford Saron

School Funding Myths & Stepping Outside the "New Normal" « School Finance 101 - 0 views

  • Reformy myth #1: That every state has done its part and more, to pour money into high need, especially poor urban districts. It hasn’t worked, mainly because teachers are lazy and overpaid and not judged on effectiveness, measured by value-added scores. So, now is the time to slash the budgets of those high need districts, where all of the state aid is flowing, and fire the worst teachers. And, it will only help, not hurt.
  • Reformy myth #2: The only aid to be cut, the aid that should be cut, and the aid that must be cut in the name of the public good, is aid to high need, large urban districts in particular. The argument appears to be that handing down state aid cuts as a flat percent of state aid is the definition of “shared sacrifice.” And the garbage analysis of district Return on Investment by the Center for American Progress, of course, validates that high need urban districts tend to be least efficient anyway. Therefore, levying the largest cuts on those districts is entirely appropriate.
    • Bradford Saron
       
      "Shared sacrifice" sounds very familiar right now. In reality, in Wisconsin we've the only public field under a revenue limit and under a qualified offer directive, so the problems that Wisconsin is dealing with is not because of education. We've already been the ones "sacrificing," through revenue caps and the QEO. 
  • Reformy myth #3: The general public is fed up and don’t want to waste any more of their hard earned tax dollars on public schools. They are fed up with greedy teachers with gold plated benefits and fed up with high paid administrators. They don’t care about small class sizes and…well… are just fed up with all of this taxing and spending on public schools that stink. As a result, the only answer is to cut that spending and simultaneously make schools better.
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  • Reformy myth #4: None of this school funding stuff matters anyway. It doesn’t matter what the overall level of funding is and it doesn’t matter how that funding is distributed. As evidence of this truthiness, reformers point to 30+ years of huge spending growth coupled with massive class size reduction and they argue… flat NAEP scores, low international performance and flat SAT scores. Therefore, if we simply cut funding back to 1980 levels (adjusted only for the CPI) and fire bad teachers, we can achieve the same level of outcomes for one heck of a lot less money.
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    Does anyone have any myths for Wisconsin?
Bradford Saron

Cognitive Interfund Transfer: Accept it, embrace it, plan for it: Social Media - 3 views

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    New blog post. 
Vince Breunig

'A statement of our just grievances' - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post - 1 views

  • t doesn’t take a great quarterback rating to win games; it takes a team effort. Have the elected officials in Austin m
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    If the teacher is the quarterback, Congress is the offensive line. Their performance impacts our performance, but they keep letting us get sacked by poverty, broken homes, student mobility, hunger, health care. And they just say "Oops" as that linebacker blows by them and buries his facemask in our chest. Then we get back to the huddle and they say, "You gotta complete your passes." We're aware of that. Make your blocks, legislators. Give us time to stand in the pocket and throw good passes. Do your job. It doesn't take a great quarterback rating to win games; it takes a team effort.
Bradford Saron

Know-IT-Alls: A Code of Ethics for School IT Professionals | Blogg-Ed Indetermination - 2 views

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    For all of us dealing with IT directors who are sometimes tough to work with. 
Vince Breunig

Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Numbers Can Lie: What ... - 2 views

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    The fact the U.S. as a nation is still standing despite of its abysmal standing on international academic tests for over half a century begs two questions: Is education as important to a nation's national security and economy as important as believed? If it is, are the numbers telling the truth about the quality of education in the U.S. and other nations?
Bradford Saron

19th, 20th, 21st, Century Education - The Educator's PLN - 0 views

  • Learning is not a passive endeavor. Teachers must be professionally developed continually over the course of their careers. It must be part of their work week. It requires a commitment on the part of the schools to provide it, and the teachers to do it. People need to be not only professionally developed, but supported in their efforts to be relevant, in order to move on to innovation. Let’s not teach for a century, but rather teach for now, and the ability to continually learn and adapt. We need our people, adults and children to be able to deal with any century moving forward.
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    Teaching in the past? Present? Or Future? 
Bradford Saron

Teachers and Administrators, Don't Be Scared of Technology: It Won't Replace the Classr... - 1 views

  • hese skills are not taught by rote learning alone, but rather are learned through discovery, inquiry, and exploration. Many of these skills cannot be successfully taught through an application or website, but must be experienced in class and facilitated by a teacher.
  • Just because an educational tool isn’t perfect does not mean it should be disregarded. Just because an online classroom does not replace the role of a teacher doesn’t mean that this learning tool has no educational merit. Though there are thousands of technological tools that help enhance instruction, it doesn’t mean that teachers will be rendered obsolete.
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    A must read
Jim Bagniewski

Why You Should Be Playing with Google+ Now | The Thinking Stick - 0 views

  • And, at the time they were right. There was nobody using the service except a bunch of geeks. Geeks trying to figure out how to use the service, did it have a place in our network? How did it work? What was the best way to use it? What did it replace and what did
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    Why you should be playing with google now
Bradford Saron

New technologies v. new behaviors | Dangerously Irrelevant - 4 views

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    I love the way he pointed to leaders, and how we need to get it to lead it!
Bradford Saron

How Computer Games Help Children Learn | MindShift - 0 views

  • Epistemologies of the Digital Age Epistemology is the study of knowledge and, according to Shaffer, every age has its own epistemology, i.e., what it means to know something. Computers — which are increasingly becoming ubiquitous in work and school — provide the means to think in new ways, which will fundamentally reconfigure our thinking and theories of knowledge. Computers in general, and epistemic games in particular, are structuring new epistemologies for our digital age. “The epistemology of School,” in Shaffer’s words, “is the epistemology of the Industrial Revolution — of creating wealth through mass production of standardized goods. School is a game about thinking like a factory worker. It is a game with an epistemology or right and wrong answers in which Students are supposed to follow instructions, whether they make sense in the moment or not.” While this kind of epistemology may have been appropriate and even innovative for the Industrial Revolution, it is outdated for our informational economy and digital age. Being literate in the digital age uses reading and writing as a foundation to build upon, but they are no longer solely sufficient. Students must learn to produce various kinds of media and learn how to solve problems using simulations.
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    Lots here. Love the way they frame gaming. 
Bradford Saron

Now You See It // The Blog of Author Cathy N. Davidson » What's the Problem t... - 2 views

  • nd here is the issue that I pose in Now You See It, the one that keeps me up at night:   how do you prepare kids for an increasingly indefinite, rapidly changing job world, in an era of high-speed technological change and global competitiveness, where what is required for success is (I’m quoting the first set of problems the bubble test is not intended to address) is:  “intellectual dexterity, higher order thinking, associational thinking, problem solving, collaborative thinking, complex analysis, the ability to apply learning to other problems, complexity and causality that do not have one right answer”
  •   What would be amazing is if we could solve the problems of variability and efficiency with a peer-driven system that actually motivates and rewards real learning.  What would be equally amazing is if we could find a system that solves variability and efficiency and, at the same time, supports learning communities (for informal learning), teachers (in the classroom), and workforce trainers (in the workplace) who strive for complex, ongoing, lifelong, connected collaborative learning.  
  • The bubble test solves the problem of variability and efficiency.   The profound problem of education that remains, once the issue of variability and efficiency is solved.  If we find a better solution to variability and efficiency than the bubble test, we can then concentrate on the real learning objective of school:  how best to prepare our kids to thrive in the life that they will lead once they are no longer in school. 
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    Thoughtful post about assessment. 
Robert Slane

Caitlin Barry: Defining 'Media Literacy' - 1 views

  • The problem is not with the teachers, but with the very definition of 'media literacy' itself. What is it, really? Can we swap the term out with 'digital learning' or 'ed tech' or 'culturally relevant education'? If so, all these terms are essentially meaningless. A student learning how to use an iPad in the classroom is not the same as a student asking critical questions of the messages in television. One is about using the media; the other is about analyzing it. These skills are as different as reading and writing. Before we can take any steps toward a national media curriculum (like the UK has had for a long time), we need to come to a consensus about the meaning of these words. If the average American can easily articulate the difference between reading and writing, he should also be able to quickly explain why we need media in the classroom. Only then can our students get the forward-thinking education that they deserve.
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    How do we define "media literacy". Without a clear definition, teachers may have a hard time knowing how to best to teach its use. 
Guy Leavitt

Sustainability| The Committed Sardine - 1 views

  • Here is what we are doing, when we are doing it, where we are doing it, and who is doing it (describing the situation) Here is why and how we are doing it (analyzing), and here is why it's important, the outcomes, relationships and impacts (evaluation
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    Ian Jukes
Bradford Saron

Global Education - Cisco Systems - 1 views

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    Ok, this is all from Cisco, but some of it is really valuable. The whitepaper on Education 3.0 is very interesting. Additionally, the link below is a recent screencast on Education 3.0. You will have to go through a bit of a "sign up" type screen before getting access to the Cisco screencast, but I recommend it. The superintendent from NY who follows the Cisco rep is really good.  https://ciscosales.webex.com/ciscosales/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=47315262&rKey=fb74b1bb0a6e38ec
Bradford Saron

Brain scan: Making data dance | The Economist - 0 views

  • “THE biggest myth is that if we save all the poor kids, we will destroy the planet,” says Hans Rosling
  • that it no longer makes sense to consider the world as divided between developing and industrialised countries; and that people everywhere respond similarly to increasing levels of wealth and health, with higher material aspirations and smaller families.
  • The best measure of political stability of a country, he believes, is whether fertility rates are falling, because that indicates that women are being educated and basic health services are being provided.
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  • Within a year Google had bought Gapminder, and a version of the bubble-graph software is now available free online under the name Google Motion Chart.
  • Do the data give any sneak previews of our future? “For most of human history, the world has been dominated by Asia, and it will be again within 40 years,” he says. “While nothing now can stop the surge to 9 billion, if the poorest 2 billion get improved child survival and the ability to buy bicycles and mobile phones, population growth will stop. We cannot have people at this level looking for basics like food and shoes. Lower-middle-income countries will also forge forward—but only if we invest in the right technologies to avoid severe climate change.”
  • “We can stop population growth, we can eradicate poverty, we can solve the energy and the climate issues but we have to make the right investments,” he says. “I know a good world is possible if we leave emotion aside and just work analytically.”
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    The data minded Hans Rosling allows us to peek into his mind and how he approaches the presentation of data and how we can learn from it. I love his approach to change: "Leave emotion aside, and just work analytically." 
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