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Matt Renwick

Common Core is a step forward in education - 17 views

www.wausaudailyherald.com/...15516687

core forward education standards

shared by Matt Renwick on 16 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Common Core is a step in that direction, and in many ways it is a necessary condition for any number of education reforms. Don't fall for cheap conspiracies. It's a major step forward.
  • George Hess on 17 Sep 14
     
    Common Core is arbitrary and untested. Standards are fine, but need to have some basis in research, not just because the have financial support from rich people and corporations who think they know what's best for all.
Tracy Tuten

How to Fix the Schools - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...ra-how-to-fix-the-schools.html

how to nytimes schools education pedagogy higher ed

shared by Tracy Tuten on 20 Sep 12 - Cached
  • Teachers — many of them — will continue to resent efforts to use standardized tests to measure their ability to teach.
  • Tucker, 72, a former senior education official in Washington, is the president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, which he founded in 1988. Since then he has focused much of his research on comparing public education in the United States with that of places that have far better results than we do — places like Finland, Japan, Shanghai and Ontario, Canada. His essential conclusion is that the best education systems share common traits — almost none of which are embodied in either the current American system or in the reform ideas that have gained sway over the last decade or so.
  • His starting point is not the public schools themselves but the universities that educate teachers. Teacher education in America is vastly inferior to many other countries; we neither emphasize pedagogy — i.e., how to teach — nor demand mastery of the subject matter. Both are a given in the top-performing countries. (Indeed, it is striking how many nonprofit education programs in the U.S. are aimed at helping working teachers do a better job — because they’ve never learned the right techniques.)
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Tucker believes that teachers should be paid more — though not exorbitantly. But making teacher education more rigorous — and imbuing the profession with more status — is just as important. “Other countries have raised their standards for getting into teachers’ colleges,” he told me. “We need to do the same.”
  • High-performing countries don’t abandon teacher standards. On the contrary. Teachers who feel part of a collaborative effort are far more willing to be evaluated for their job performance — just like any other professional. It should also be noted that none of the best-performing countries rely as heavily as the U.S. does on the blunt instrument of standardized tests. That is yet another lesson we have failed to learn.
  • Tracy Tuten on 20 Sep 12
     
    On what's wrong with our education system 
Mark Johnstone

Noam Chomsky on Democracy and Education in the 21st Century and Beyond - 32 views

www.truth-out.org/...in-the-21st-century-and-beyond

shared by Mark Johnstone on 26 Nov 14 - Cached
  • Everybody was a good student. The kids were just encouraged to do what they like to do and what was best, and there was a structure; there was a program. It's not you ran around doing anything you felt like. I skipped a grade, but I didn't pay any attention and no one else paid any attention. Just that I was the smallest kid in the class, but the idea that somebody is a good student; somebody is not a good student - it just never arose. There were tests, but they just gave information about what's going on. This is something we ought to be doing better. The kids weren't ranked; there were no grades. There's a lot of cooperative work and cooperative projects and they encouraged us. You know, study, challenging questions, and it was extremely successful. I remember everything very well. I went into the academic high school and it's kind of like a black hole. I was able to get all As and a scholarship to go into college. I might well not have gone, except for what I learned on my own.
  • Mark Johnstone on 26 Nov 14
     
    "Everybody was a good student. The kids were just encouraged to do what they like to do and what was best, and there was a structure; there was a program. It's not you ran around doing anything you felt like. I skipped a grade, but I didn't pay any attention and no one else paid any attention. Just that I was the smallest kid in the class, but the idea that somebody is a good student; somebody is not a good student - it just never arose. There were tests, but they just gave information about what's going on. This is something we ought to be doing better. The kids weren't ranked; there were no grades. There's a lot of cooperative work and cooperative projects and they encouraged us. You know, study, challenging questions, and it was extremely successful. I remember everything very well. I went into the academic high school and it's kind of like a black hole. I was able to get all As and a scholarship to go into college. I might well not have gone, except for what I learned on my own."
Matt Renwick

Rage Against the Common Core - NYTimes.com - 22 views

www.nytimes.com/...e-against-the-common-core.html

commoncore nytimes

shared by Matt Renwick on 01 Jan 15 - No Cached
Sheri Edwards liked it
  • Race to the Top program to encourage states
  • misconception that standards and testing are identical has become widespread
  • Many teachers like the standards, because they invite creativity in the classroom — instead of memorization, the Common Core emphasizes critical thinking and problem-solving.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • unreliable and biased against those who teach both low- and high-achieving students.
  • 76 percent of teachers favored nationwide academic standards
  • Obama administration has only itself to blame
  • emphasized high-stakes “accountability” and market-driven reforms
  • link talented teachers with engaged students and a challenging curriculum
Maughn Gregory

How to Fix Our Math Education - NYTimes.com - 63 views

www.nytimes.com/...to-fix-our-math-education.html

education math ed_aims ed_content applied

shared by Maughn Gregory on 25 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • the assumption that there is a single established body of mathematical skills that everyone needs to know to be prepared for 21st-century careers. This assumption is wrong. The truth is that different sets of math skills are useful for different careers, and our math education should be changed to reflect this fact.
  • Today, American high schools offer a sequence of algebra, geometry, more algebra, pre-calculus and calculus (or a “reform” version in which these topics are interwoven). This has been codified by the Common Core State Standards, recently adopted by more than 40 states. This highly abstract curriculum is simply not the best way to prepare a vast majority of high school students for life.
  • A math curriculum that focused on real-life problems would still expose students to the abstract tools of mathematics, especially the manipulation of unknown quantities. But there is a world of difference between teaching “pure” math, with no context, and teaching relevant problems that will lead students to appreciate how a mathematical formula models and clarifies real-world situations.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • For instance, how often do most adults encounter a situation in which they need to solve a quadratic equation? Do they need to know what constitutes a “group of transformations” or a “complex number”? Of course professional mathematicians, physicists and engineers need to know all this, but most citizens would be better served by studying how mortgages are priced, how computers are programmed and how the statistical results of a medical trial are to be understood.
  • Imagine replacing the sequence of algebra, geometry and calculus with a sequence of finance, data and basic engineering.
  • Traditionalists will object that the standard curriculum teaches valuable abstract reasoning, even if the specific skills acquired are not immediately useful in later life. A generation ago, traditionalists were also arguing that studying Latin, though it had no practical application, helped students develop unique linguistic skills. We believe that studying applied math, like learning living languages, provides both useable knowledge and abstract skills.
  • In math, what we need is “quantitative literacy,” the ability to make quantitative connections whenever life requires (as when we are confronted with conflicting medical test results but need to decide whether to undergo a further procedure) and “mathematical modeling,” the ability to move practically between everyday problems and mathematical formulations (as when we decide whether it is better to buy or lease a new car).
Javier E

Primero Hay Que Aprender Español. Ranhou Zai Xue Zhongwen. - NYTimes.com - 15 views

www.nytimes.com/...30kristof.html

spanish chinese language education

shared by Javier E on 30 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Hispanics made up 16 percent of America’s population in 2009, but that is forecast to surge to 29 percent by 2050
  • Spanish is easy enough that kids really can emerge from high school with a very useful command of the language that they will retain for life, while Mandarin takes about four times as long to make the same progress.
  • In effect, Chinese is typically a career. Spanish is a practical add-on to your daily life, meshing with whatever career you choose.
Don Doehla

The Shanghai Secret - NYTimes.com - 26 views

www.nytimes.com/...edman-the-shanghai-secret.html

nytimes article education shanghai

shared by Don Doehla on 01 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Don Doehla on 01 Nov 13
     
    HANGHAI - Whenever I visit China, I am struck by the sharply divergent predictions of its future one hears. Lately, a number of global investors have been "shorting" China, betting that someday soon its powerful economic engine will sputter, as the real estate boom here turns to a bust. Frankly, if I were shorting China today, it would not be because of the real estate bubble, but because of the pollution bubble that is increasingly enveloping some of its biggest cities. Optimists take another view: that, buckle in, China is just getting started, and that what we're now about to see is the payoff from China's 30 years of investment in infrastructure and education. I'm not a gambler, so I'll just watch this from the sidelines. But if you're looking for evidence as to why the optimistic bet isn't totally crazy, you might want to visit a Shanghai elementary school.
  • Don Doehla on 01 Nov 13
     
    HANGHAI - Whenever I visit China, I am struck by the sharply divergent predictions of its future one hears. Lately, a number of global investors have been "shorting" China, betting that someday soon its powerful economic engine will sputter, as the real estate boom here turns to a bust. Frankly, if I were shorting China today, it would not be because of the real estate bubble, but because of the pollution bubble that is increasingly enveloping some of its biggest cities. Optimists take another view: that, buckle in, China is just getting started, and that what we're now about to see is the payoff from China's 30 years of investment in infrastructure and education. I'm not a gambler, so I'll just watch this from the sidelines. But if you're looking for evidence as to why the optimistic bet isn't totally crazy, you might want to visit a Shanghai elementary school.
Suzanne Nelson

4 Easy Ways to Get Students to Interact with your Interactive White Board « classroom2point0 - 251 views

classroom2point0.wordpress.com/...h-your-interactive-white-board

smartboard tips

shared by Suzanne Nelson on 06 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • When given the chance, students love getting involved in the classroom and voicing their opinions.  We know that students who are actively engaged learn and retain more.  Here are 4 fast and easy ways to get your students involved and engaged with your classic or interactive whiteboard (IWB).
Roland Gesthuizen

The scourge of the selfie stick - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) - 37 views

www.abc.net.au/...5997032

photography media ABCDrum ABC opinion

shared by Roland Gesthuizen on 04 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Roland Gesthuizen on 04 Jan 15
     
    "The selfie stick, dubbed the "wand of narcissism", is now an essential carry-on item for many travellers. But Simon Tatz wonders why tourists find their own faces more fascinating than the wonders they behold."
Christophe Gigon

elearnspace. Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age - 17 views

www.elearnspace.org/...connectivism.htm

connectivism MEMOIRE learning elearning theory collaboration technology community

shared by Christophe Gigon on 09 Dec 08 - Cached
  • Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn.
    • Rose Molter
      Rose Molter on 30 Aug 11
       
      I aggree that as teachers we need to realize that technology has changed instruction and the way that our students learn and the way that we learn and instruct.
    • Orlando Gonzalez
      Orlando Gonzalez on 13 Mar 12
       
      Technology has always changed the way we live. How did we respond to changes in the past? One thought is that some institutions, some businesses disappeared, while others, who took advantage of the new tech, appeared to replace the old. It will happen again and we as educators need to lead the way.
    • Maureen Curran
      Maureen Curran on 24 Mar 12
       
      With technology our students brains are wired differently and they can multi-task and learn in multiple virtual environments all at once. This should make us think about how we present lessons, structure learning and keep kids engaged.
    • Mike Burnett
      Mike Burnett on 18 Aug 14
       
      Rubbish. The idea that digital native are adept at multitasking is wrong. They may be doing many things but the quality and depth is reduced. There is a significant body of research to support this. Development of grit and determination are key attributes of successful people. Set and demand high standards. No one plays sport or an instrument because it is easy rather because they can clearly see a link between hard work and pleasure.
  • Information development was slow.
  • Many learners will move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime.
  • ...41 more annotations...
  • Informal learning is a significant aspect of our learning experience.
  • Learning is a continual process, lasting for a lifetime.
  • Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains.
  • Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories.
  • Principles of connectivism:
  • Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions. Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources. Learning may reside in non-human appliances. Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning. Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill. Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities. Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.
    • Rose Molter
      Rose Molter on 30 Aug 11
       
      I think it is important for us to realize the importance of connections.
  • The organization and the individual are both learning organisms.
  • Classrooms which emulate the “fuzziness”
    • Maureen Curran
      Maureen Curran on 24 Mar 12
       
      So what does this look like? I feel that when I attempt this, evaluators and administrators don't necessarily understand. They want a neat, quiet, well-managed, orderly classroom.
    • Maureen Curran
      Maureen Curran on 24 Mar 12
       
      If new learning approaches are required, then why are we still being evaluated in a linear way?
  • John Seely Brown presents an interesting notion that the internet leverages the small efforts of many with the large efforts of few.
  • The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.
  • Knowledge is growing exponentially
  • amount of knowledge
  • is doubling every 18 months
  • To combat the shrinking half-life of knowledge, organizations have been forced to develop new methods of deploying instruction.”
  • (the understanding of where to find knowledge needed).
  • know-where
  • learning
  • a persisting change in human performance or performance potential…[which] must come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the world”
  • Learning theories are concerned with the actual process of learning, not with the value of what is being learned.
  • The ability to synthesize and recognize connections and patterns is a valuable skill.
  • knowledge is no longer acquired in the linear manner
  • What is the impact of chaos as a complex pattern recognition process on learning
  • An entirely new approach is needed.
  • Chaos is the breakdown of predictability, evidenced in complicated arrangements that initially defy order.
  • Meaning-making and forming connections between specialized communities are important activities.
  • Chaos, as a science, recognizes the connection of everything to everything.
  • If the underlying conditions used to make decisions change, the decision itself is no longer as correct as it was at the time it was made.
  • principle that people, groups, systems, nodes, entities can be connected to create an integrated whole.
  • Connections between disparate ideas and fields can create new innovations.
  • Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual
  • decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations
  • The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital.
  • Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism do not attempt to address the challenges of organizational knowledge and transference.
  • The health of the learning ecology of the organization depends on effective nurturing of information flow.
  • This cycle of knowledge development (personal to network to organization) allows learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed.
  • This amplification of learning, knowledge and understanding through the extension of a personal network is the epitome of connectivism.
  • Diverse teams of varying viewpoints are a critical structure for completely exploring ideas
  • An organizations ability to foster, nurture, and synthesize the impacts of varying views of information is critical to knowledge economy surviva
  • As knowledge continues to grow and evolve, access to what is needed is more important than what the learner currently possesses.
    • BalancEd Tech
      BalancEd Tech on 25 Mar 12
       
      Access is not enough. Prior knowledge and understanding is needed. Processing is needed. Evaluation of processing and outputs is needed. Feeding that back into the "system" is needed.
  • learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity
  • learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity
Maureen Greenbaum

Are College Lectures Unfair? - NYTimes.com - 47 views

mobile.nytimes.com/...e-college-lectures-unfair.html

college lectures teachng learning

shared by Maureen Greenbaum on 17 Sep 15 - No Cached
Xiaojing Kou liked it
  • Research comparing the two methods has consistently found that students over all perform better in active-learning courses than in traditional lecture courses. However, women, minorities, and low-income and first-generation students benefit more, on average, than white males from more affluent, educated families.
  • research has demonstrated that we learn new material by anchoring it to knowledge we already possess
  • low-stakes quiz at the start of each meeting of their introductory psychology course. Compared with students who took the same course in a more traditional format, the quizzed students attended class more often and achieved higher test scores; the intervention also reduced by 50 percent the achievement gap between more affluent and less affluent students.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • act of putting one’s own thoughts into words and communicating them to others, research has shown, is a powerful contributor to learning. Active-learning courses regularly provide opportunities for students to talk and debate with one another in a collaborative, low-pressure environment.
marcmancinelli

Op-Ed Columnist - The Medium Is the Medium - NYTimes.com - 33 views

www.nytimes.com/...09brooks.html

shared by marcmancinelli on 20 Jul 10 - Cached
    • marcmancinelli
      marcmancinelli on 20 Jul 10
       
      Literature helps you become cultivated, not just hip or knowledgeable.
Richard Fanning

A short introduction concerning the implementation of the Horizon system at the Nicholas Copernicus University Library in Toruñ - 4 views

liber-maps.kb.nl/...popla11.htm

Horizon automation ILS

shared by Richard Fanning on 29 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Horizon is a third generation system
  • marketed by Ameritech Library Services, a subsidiary of the Ameritech Corporation, one of the world's largest communication companies
  • new system Horizon was built on the Marquis, Dynix library system, and is being developed by Ameritech Library Service in collaboration with the University of Chicago and Indiana University. It was first introduced in the USA in 1991
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Horizon is a fully integrated client/server library management system, providing a graphical user interface for the library, and offering the functionality and standards required for an open system, including Web access, Z39.50 standard for information exchange, the TCP/IP communication standard, UNIX and Windows NT for portability. Horizon uses the SQL database management system, available from Sybase or Microsoft.
  • the main hardware is a SUN computer Sparc Server 1000 with a UNIX Solaris 2.5 operating system
  • the centre of any library system is the cataloguing module.
  • Cataloguing and Authority Control contain the bibliographic database used by all Horizon modules
  • project will contain four stages of activity. Three of them include:
  • the preparation of standardised cataloguing rules and their implementation working out subject classification exchange of records among different systems preparation of legal and financial responsibilities collecting money for buying software and technical equipment etc. (we have already received $705,000 from the Mellon Foundation) implementation of system testing of the National Catalogue module schedule preparation for creation of databases users' training
  • Generally speaking, the main points of plan in Nicholas Copernicus University Library have been successfully realised. The progress is visible. Since September 1998 new modules have been implemented and tested. In the opinion of our users they work quite well. Of course, problems arise from time to time, and sometimes they are quite troublesome, but they are solved on a daily basis.
  • Richard Fanning on 29 Jul 10
     
    Horizon library automation system
Peter Beens

A zero policy in Ontario - Winnipeg Free Press - 26 views

www.winnipegfreepress.com/...licy-in-Ontario-101564158.html

assessment evaluation A&E Ontario Manitoba education

shared by Peter Beens on 27 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Peter Beens on 27 Aug 10
     
    Students in Ontario are facing the threat of a zero on assignments they hand in late this school year...
Steve Ransom

Digital Age Damaging Learning | Nicholas Carr - 72 views

www.smh.com.au/...-something-20101012-16hhd.html

learning dumb google computer criticalthinking faustianbargain

shared by Steve Ransom on 13 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • excessive use of the internet and other forms of technology diminishes our capacity for deep, meditative thinking, "the brighter the software, the dimmer the user", a counter-revolution may be required.
  • curricula must be developed not only with the potential benefits of technology linked to every learning outcome in mind, but also the costs.
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 13 Oct 10
       
      The Faustian bargain that Postman so often wrote about
  • available where there is clear utility, to remove it when there is not
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 13 Oct 10
       
      And who do we leave this decision up to? The individual? If so, we are in big trouble.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • we must be mindful of any cost associated with allowing ourselves to devolve to a more machine-like state.
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 13 Oct 10
       
      NO ONE is striving for this. Just the opposite.
  • Of greatest importance, however, is the status of our thinking, understanding how we think and the effect new technologies have on our cognitive processes. This debate extends beyond the neuroscience to questions relating to what is worth knowing and what mental functions are worth preserving at their present level of development
  • As a senior high school teacher, one of my greatest bugbears is the reluctance of students to reflect on the information they have collected and plan their essays. Rather, some expect to Google their entire essay, often skipping from one hyperlink to the next until they find something that appears to be relevant, then pasting it into their essay, frequently oblivious to academic honesty and coherence of argument. The ability to discern reliability of sources is also severely lacking
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 13 Oct 10
       
      This is a by-product of failing to address and teach good research methods in a digital world and assigning work that can simply be cut and pasted. We must move beyond "reporting" in a digital, information-rich, and connected world.
  • A primary role of educators is to foster qualities that are distinctly human: our ability to reflect, reason and imagine
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 13 Oct 10
       
      Exactly... and this must happen, regardless of the types of information that we have access to. To say that technology impedes this is laughable.
  • In the curricula of tomorrow this may entail identifying topics and tasks that begin with an instruction to turn all electronic devices off.
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 13 Oct 10
       
      No- it should begin with teachers establishing and negotiating meaningful, interesting, and powerful learning opportunities with access to all available tools. The computer as a learning tool is meant to extend physical human capabilities, not weaken them. It is the low-level, rote tasks that we require that weaken them. It's time to recognize this and wake up. Blaming the technology does little more than preserve the status quo.
Rob Kovacs

Nine Reasons to Twitter in Schools - 97 views

www.techlearning.com/...17340

twitter

shared by Rob Kovacs on 15 Oct 10 - No Cached
    • Rob Kovacs
      Rob Kovacs on 15 Oct 10
       
      Virtual staffroom - numbers Global connections Reflective practice and support Gather ideas/opinions Trends and "latest/greatest" Networked professional development Quality of information? Disciplined writing
Chai Reddy

Teaching for America - NYTimes.com - 24 views

www.nytimes.com/...21friedman.html

teaching nytimes Friedman education

shared by Chai Reddy on 22 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • 75 percent of young Americans, between the ages of 17 to 24, are unable to enlist in the military today because they have failed to graduate from high school, have a criminal record, or are physically unfit.
  • Tony Wagner, the Harvard-based education expert and author of “The Global Achievement Gap,” explains it this way. There are three basic skills that students need if they want to thrive in a knowledge economy: the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving; the ability to communicate effectively; and the ability to collaborate.
  • Wagner thinks we should create a West Point for teachers: “We need a new National Education Academy, modeled after our military academies, to raise the status of the profession and to support the R.& D. that is essential for reinventing teaching, learning and assessment in the 21st century.”
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • All good ideas, but if we want better teachers we also need better parents — parents who turn off the TV and video games, make sure homework is completed, encourage reading and elevate learning as the most important life skill.
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