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Justin Medved

Column: Futile fight on student tweets - 0 views

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    "Taking a cue from The Scarlet Letter, the website Jezebel compiled racially insensitive tweets directed toward President Obama by high school students across the country, naming names and even calling the students' schools. The tweets - posted by students under their real identities - covered the full range of bigotry, from racial epithets to basketball stereotypes, with the N-word in abundance. In response, Giga OMasked, "When does shaming racist kids turn into online bullying?" The answer to that is never. It would be a mistake to mischaracterize the denunciation of racially offensive speech as abusive. To the contrary, that give-and-take (or more precisely "say something deeply offensive and get verbally pummeled") is what free speech in America is all about. That's the flaw in virtually every strategy to keep students in both high school and college on the social media straight and narrow. High school is all about preparing the next generation for citizenship. We teach them civics, history, a smattering of math and science and hand them a diploma. But we too often also try to control their every move. That's literally the case with the news last week that a sophomore at John Jay High School in San Antonio was expelled after refusing to carry an ID with a computer chip designed to track the movements of every student in the school."
sallymastro

Mobile Tech in Classrooms Boost English Learners - New America Media - 0 views

  • when a student asked Nieto if he could bring his iPod to class, Nieto agreed, and neither teacher nor student has looked back since.
    • sallymastro
       
      Whether iphone or ereaders...allowing students to use technology to enhance the learning process is something I am starting to approach with a more open mind.
  • said mobile devices are particularly useful because of the many learning applications and basic language tools, such as spell check and grammar check, which increase the speed of learning. Rather than view the mobile applications as learning shortcuts tantamount to cheating, Nieto sees them as motivational tools that increase his students’ interest in reading and writing by giving them instant feedback. It’s a perspective most of his students seem to share.
    • sallymastro
       
      Instant feedback is what I am looking for in the English classroom. I want to be able to provide constructive criticism more immediately, so the students can edit at the moment as opposed to waiting a day or two days to receive my comments on a writing piece.
  • as motivational tools that increase his students’ interest in reading and writing by giving them instant feedback.
    • sallymastro
       
      When I indicated to my students that they could use kindles, kobos or ireaders/iphones for the ISU novel study unit, they were quite excited and quickly retained copies of ISU via this means. I am still using paper copies of the books as well, but I want to be able to have choice in their methods of acquiring texts and engaging in the reading process.
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  • Project Tomorrow survey of roughly 300,000 K-12 students, 42,000 parents, 38,000 teachers and librarians, and 3,500 administrators from over 6,500 public and private schools, on how they are using—and would like to be using —new technologies in the classroom.
  • The results show that while the majority of students—and, perhaps surprisingly, parents—are in favor of using mobile devices for learning as long as the school allows it, most school administrators remain opposed
  • “I know the main reasons mobile technology is not welcome in the classroom are fear and misunderstanding about the structure that it gives the learning,” said Reina Cabezas, a teacher at Cox Elementary in Oakland, Calif., who is also doing masters thesis research on the topic of mobile devices in the classroom.
    • sallymastro
       
      Currently my students are participating in their ISU novel study. They are currently reading and annotating their novels. I have indicated to my students that ireaders or ereaders are the quickest means to accessing a text as opposed to waiting one to two weeks for a book if it has had to be ordered. With the ireaders and ereaders they can now annotate and highlight important or interesting passages as they read. I would like to be able to have the students bring these technology tools to class. I have indicated that this is the direction in which I am going with ISU study, and so far, my Director has indicated he will back in allowing the kids to bring ereaders/ireaders to class. Fingers crossed it will bring positive and engaging results.
  • “But I don't think we stop living because of fear, right? No, we educate ourselves and learn about the security measures, expectations of all stakeholders, and apply principles of successful models of mobile devices in the classroom. Most importantly, we realize that technology is a tool of efficacy for the teacher, not the teacher's replacement. Lastly, technology only engages and motivates students when teachers know how to use them strategically to keep the hook. Overuse of anything is never good.”
    • sallymastro
       
      I am hoping that I will be able to show my Director and Head of School the successful incorporation of ereaders/ireaders into the English classroom.
    • sallymastro
       
      Ongoing concern within my school is the use of personal mobile devices in the classroom. Policy at our school is mobile phones are in the lockers and not used on school premises.
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    You should read this article because, like me, if you have been skeptical about the use of iphones in the classroom, you will be enlightened about how to proceed in a way that will make technologies in the classroom understandable to and meaningful for all stakeholders:administrators, teachers, parents and students. Stay tuned for my blog on incorporating ireaders/ereaders in the English classroom. 
Justin Medved

Children's Media Use in America 2013 Infographic from Common Sense Media | Common Sense... - 2 views

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    Interesting info graphic on the state of media use in the US.
David Byrne

How Should Professional Development Change? | Edutopia - 1 views

    • David Byrne
       
      @Cohort21 - Looking at these numbers, I wonder what would happen if we were to spend 7.5 hours together every week!
  • The Shanghai teacher and Singapore teacher ratios of teaching time to collaboration time reveal even larger disparities. The Shanghai teacher reported teaching 15 hours a week and collaborating 7.5 hours a week. The Singapore teacher spends 18 hours teaching and 15 hours collaborating each week. Spending so much time collaborating with other teachers every week is not a reality for U.S. teachers who feel lucky to chat with their colleagues at lunch or in biweekly faculty meetings. The differences in professional development systems do not end here though. In Singapore, teachers are expected to do 100 hours of professional development (paid by the ministry of education) every year. That would be 500 hours in five years. In Shanghai, teachers are expected to do a minimum of 360 hours of professional development every five years -- compare that to the mere 120 hours of professional development that is typically required of U.S. teachers every five years.
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