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Steve Ransom

eSchool News » On ed tech, we're asking the wrong question » Print - 0 views

www.eschoolnews.com/...print

education technology change critique poverty equity funding obstacles vision leadership sustainability

shared by Steve Ransom on 18 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • Does the use of textbooks lead to better student achievement [2]? Somebody should do the research. Schools nationwide are spending billions of dollars each year on textbooks, with no clear evidence they improve test scores—and stakeholders deserve some answers.
  • That anyone would be OK with the notion that schools haven’t changed much since the days when factory jobs were prevalent speaks volumes about how our society values education and its children.
  • Still, the Times story is correct in noting the scarcity of scientifically valid evidence that proves technology’s pedagogical value without a doubt.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • But I would argue that’s the point: You can’t separate the technology from the rest of the learning process, because they are inextricably bound.
  • But technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum. For technology to have an impact on student achievement, schools also need sound teaching, strong leadership, fidelity of use, and a supportive culture, among other things.
  • Problems such as poverty have always existed, but what hasn’t is the idea that schools should be responsible for educating every child, regardless of his or her circumstances. As a society, we’ve made this promise as part of No Child Left Behind, but we haven’t backed it up with the funding that is needed to make good on this promise—preferring instead what we think are quick solutions, such as merit pay for teachers … or technology in classrooms.
  • But the Times got it wrong with regard to the central question it invited readers to consider. Instead of examining whether technology is worth schools’ investment, the newspaper should have focused on two other, more relevant questions: Why are so many districts that invest in technology still failing to see success? And, what are the conditions that best lead to ed-tech success?
  • Funding constraints have been exacerbated by an ever-multiplying series of challenges, such as growing populations of ESL and special-needs students and the creeping effects of poverty on school district operations.
  • In other words, technology can’t improve student outcomes by itself. Instead, it’s one of several elements that must work together in harmony, like a complex dance, to elicit results. Should it come as a surprise that test scores haven’t risen markedly in Kyrene, when the Times reported the district has had to cut several teaching positions in recent years? Who knows how much the district has invested in professional development, or tech support?
  • The real question isn’t how to improve public education, he says—it’s: Do we really want to? And that’s a question we’ve been avoiding as a society, because the answer might require a level of commitment we’re not prepared to make.
  • In the wealthiest country in the world, it would be nice to think that school districts like Kyrene shouldn’t have to choose between technology and teachers. It would be nice to think they could afford both.
Steve Ransom

Testing in kindergarten: whatever happened to story time? | Ben Joravsky on Politics | ... - 0 views

m.chicagoreader.com/...Content

kindergarten testing standardizedtesting

shared by Steve Ransom on 29 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • When all is said and done, kindergarteners will have spent up to 60 days of class time—or a third of the school year—taking various standardized tests. And you wonder why so many wealthy people send their children to private schools.
  • to hold teachers accountable for how much their students learn—or at least how well they score on standardized tests, which is not always the same thing. But the idea is that high-scoring "good" teachers will keep their jobs and low-scoring "bad" teachers will be fired, presumably to be replaced by the thousands of "good" teachers eager to come to Illinois to give more tests.
  • "Most of the kids just look at me," says another kindergarten teacher who asked not to be identified. "They're five. They don't what a 'main character' means."
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • means one-on-one testing.
  • Presumably, by the end of the year the child will know enough to say the bug feels anxious. At which point the teacher will get to keep his or her job, for at least another year.
  • that student's file her delightfully original take is marked: "Wrong!"
  • Here's the twist. All teachers record the answers. Think about this, folks: teachers get to grade their own accountability tests. Damn, if they had this for students back in the day, I might have passed chemistry.
Steve Ransom

What Teens Get About the Internet That Parents Don't - Mimi Ito - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...273852

college learning teens parents teachers internet passion diy personal social abundance

shared by Steve Ransom on 10 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • "We already have a guitar. I can learn on my own and with my friends." Me: "It seems like you should get lessons for the basics." Her: "Mom, that's what the Internet is for." It turns out she's already been practicing with the help of YouTube tutorials.
  • because of the abundance of knowledge and social connections
  • balancing the competitive pressures of college-readiness, the need for unstructured learning and socializing, and the role of the Internet in all of that
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Trends indicate that families with the means to do so are investing more and more in enrichment activities to give their kids a leg up
  • padding resumes for college
  • an arms race in achievement
  • the Internet has been a lifeline for self-directed learning and connection to peers.
  • parents more often than not have a negative view of the role of the Internet in learning, but young people almost always have a positive one
  • Young people are desperate for learning that is relevant and part of the fabric of their social lives, where they are making choices about how, when, and what to learn, without it all being mapped for them in advance
  • Learning on the Internet is about posting a burning question on a forum like Quora or Stack Exchange, searching for a how to video on YouTube or Vimeo, or browsing a site like Instructables, Skillshare, and Mentormob for a new project to pick up.
  • but I'm also delighted that she finds the time to cultivate interests in a self-directed way that is about contributing to her community of peers
  • Steve Ransom on 10 Mar 13
     
    This is a great piece that captures much of the essence of how many (teens are the focus, but not exclusive to the points made) are seeing learning today... really important to understand.
Steve Ransom

We Need Teachers, Not Facilitators! : Stager-to-Go - 0 views

stager.tv/blog

teachers teaching teachereducation change quality

shared by Steve Ransom on 01 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Teachers expert in inspiring long-term, personally meaningful and interdisciplinary projects or thematic instruction regularly exceed the standards, but that realization is lost on facilitators.
  • New teachers have little or no experience with classroom centers, independent work, student projects and the sorts of agency that allow children to enjoy the “flow” experiences that build upon their obsessions and lead to understanding. Even when teachers are not lecturing from bell-to-bell, the classroom agenda is top-down and leaves little chance for serendipity or student initiative.
  • Great teachers know their students in deeper ways than any data can provide. They ask kids about their weekends. They chat about what kids are reading and console them when their hamster dies
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • They learn continuously for themselves and their students. Teachers share their love of reading and are patrons of the arts. They are active citizens and engage students in current events. Outstanding teachers are not afraid to appear silly or create a whimsical classroom environment. They play in the snow with kindergarteners like Maria Knee.
  • great teachers need to be passionate, competent and interesting humans beyond the scope and sequence of the curriculum.
  • oday, new teachers truly are facilitators. They are “trained” to manage classrooms and deliver the curriculum handed to them.
  • Steve Ransom on 01 Jan 13
     
    An important post about teaching to reflect on.
Steve Ransom

talking word processor | Free Resources from the Net for EVERY Learner - 0 views

paulhami.edublogs.org/...talking-word-processor

tts text2speech msword word addin

shared by Steve Ransom on 26 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 26 Sep 13
     
    WordTalk is a powerful free tool that ought to be on every computer in every school where Microsoft Word is installed on a Windows computer! This is a tool that has the potential to benefit ALL learners, especially any who struggle with reading or writing. I'm adding WordTalk to my list of Extra Special Learning Resourses.  WordTalk is a high quality free add-in that provides convenient, versatile and customizable text-to-speech for any document written or opened in Microsoft Word. It works in every version of MS Word, from Word 97 through Word 2010; and it's available to run on every version of Windows from Windows 98 through Windows 7.
Steve Ransom

Understanding Twitter Chats - Part 1 | ReadingOnTheRun.com - 0 views

www.readingontherun.com/...twitter-chats-1

twitter chats video howto introduction tips tutorial

shared by Steve Ransom on 02 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 02 Nov 12
     
    If you want a great education community to dive into right away on Twitter, consider lurking or participating in one of the many scheduled Twitter Chats that go on almost every day of the week. Here's a 2-part video tutorial to help you get started. It's also a great way to find relevant educators on Twitter to follow.
Steve Ransom

Google adds remote desktop to Hangouts, lets users simultaneously video chat and troubl... - 0 views

www.theverge.com/...dds-remote-desktop-to-hangouts

google+ hangouts screenshare

shared by Steve Ransom on 02 May 13 - No Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 02 May 13
     
    Google+ Hangouts now allow you to screenshare/share desktop with those in your hangout. Great new feature to provide troubleshooting/support amongst other things. Google+ Hangounts allow you and 8 others to have a video meeting and access/share your Google Docs with those in the meeting. Great tool.
Steve Ransom

100 Video Sites Every Educator Should Bookmark | AccreditedOnlineColleges.org - 0 views

www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/...every-educator-should-bookmark

video list compilation collection

shared by Steve Ransom on 07 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 07 Apr 10
     
    You can find a great amount of helpful material on these sites, including videos to augment your lessons, lectures to inspire students, documentaries to show them how things work, and loads of additional videos to help you become a better, smarter teacher.
Istvan Rozanich

Op-Ed: There's An App For Everything, And That's A Problem : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...everything-and-thats-a-problem

app problem article technology

shared by Istvan Rozanich on 06 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Faced with a choice between maturity and pain minimization, Silicon Valley has chosen the latter.
  • He thought it's a complex process that involves you telling a story, processing some sensory experience. It's not just about being confronted with pictures, facts or numbers. Now, unfortunately that's how Silicon Valley thinks, because those are the things they can record.
  • how problem solvers define problems matters a great dea
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • That's the kind of an app that definitely has a logic behind it. It has a philosophy and that's a philosophy that says that you need to care about the environment because you want to impress your friends.
  • But other people would say, well, this is how cultural innovation happens. We need to leave certain margins of error in place and actually allow people to mix ingredients in ways that are silly and unexpectable for new cultural innovation, new culinary products to emerge. I
  • t's not being marketed as a vice fee. It's being marketed as a health premium.
  • need to understand that imperfection actually matters
  • being unable to live in a world that still tolerates inconsistency
  • Istvan Rozanich on 06 Mar 13
     
    Faced with a choice between maturity and pain minimization, Silicon Valley has chosen the latter.
Steve Ransom

The Teacher's Guide to Facebook - 0 views

mashable.com/...facebook-for-teachers

facebook education tips friending teachers school

shared by Steve Ransom on 30 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • A simple and popular workaround for awkward or potentially unprofessional interactions is to use Facebook pages, groups or separate accounts in the classroom. Pages are essentially separate profiles that students can Like in order to receive updates, and you can add students to groups in order to stay connected. Creating a separate profile for yourself is an easy way to prevent students from seeing any personal information that you would normally have on Facebook.
  • When you set a social media policy for your classroom, it’s important to delineate clear guidelines with your students on how they should and should not interact with you.
  • “During the term, I perceive that friending a student creates uncomfortable boundaries for the student-professor relationship,” she says. “After all, students post information about their personal lives and vice versa.”
Steve Ransom

iPod, iListen, iRead | Edutopia - 0 views

www.edutopia.org/ology-improving-reading-skills

ipods ell esl literacy reading voicerecording research

shared by Steve Ransom on 25 May 10 - Cached
  • students are leading their own reading. They want to practice their speed, accuracy, and comprehension. The iPod makes personal a process that has been painfully public. No struggling reader likes to have his or her weaknesses exposed in a group, in front of the entire class or their reading circle. The iPod enables more intimate, 1:1 reading instruction between a student and a teacher listening to each other's voices in audio files.
  • Success becomes contagious
  • "There's less of me talking and more of them doing."
  • Steve Ransom on 25 May 10
     
    projects integrating ipods and voice recording to support reading fluency, english language learners, ... leading to large gains in reading achievement
Steve Ransom

Principal: 'I was naïve about Common Core' - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...-i-was-naive-about-common-core

commoncore testing standardizedtesting highstakestesting accountability critique

shared by Steve Ransom on 06 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • The Common Core places an extraordinary emphasis on vocabulary development
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 06 Mar 13
       
      Instead of concept development...
  • Teachers are engaged in practices like these because they are pressured and afraid, not because they think the assessments are educationally sound. Their principals are pressured and nervous about their own scores and the school’s scores. Guaranteed, every child in the class feels that pressure and trepidation as well.
  • I am troubled that a company that has a multi-million dollar contract to create tests for the state should also be able to profit from producing test prep materials. I am even more deeply troubled that this wonderful little girl, whom I have known since she was born, is being subject to this distortion of what her primary education should be.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Real learning occurs in the mind of the learner when she makes connections with prior learning, makes meaning, and retains that knowledge in order to create additional meaning from new information.  In short, with tests we see traces of learning, not learning itself.
  • Parents can expect that the other three will be neglected as teachers frantically try to prepare students for the difficult and high-stakes tests.
  • They see data, not children. 
  • The promise of the Common Core is dying and teaching and learning are being distorted.  The well that should sustain the Core has been poisoned.
  • Whether or not learning the word ‘commission’ is appropriate for second graders could be debated—I personally think it is a bit over the top.  What is of deeper concern, however, is that during a time when 7 year olds should be listening to and making music, they are instead taking a vocabulary quiz.
  • Data should be used as a strategy for improvement, not for accountability
  • A fool with a tool is still a fool.  A fool with a powerful tool is a dangerous fool.
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 06 Mar 13
       
      Best quotation of the day!
Steve Ransom

SearchReSearch: Be prepared: What will happen to your content when you die? - 0 views

searchresearch1.blogspot.com/...-what-will-happen-to-your.html

die death google inactive

shared by Steve Ransom on 08 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 08 Jun 13
     
    Google takes you through its Inactive Account Manager so that you can tell it what to do when you are no longer responsive. You'll have to appoint at least one trustee.
Steve Ransom

And the 2012 Edublog Award winners are…. | The Edublog Awards - 0 views

edublogawards.com/...2012-edublog-award-winners-are

Blogs list collection award

shared by Steve Ransom on 14 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 14 Dec 12
     
    A great list to check out for new blogs to add to your RSS reader
Steve Ransom

Education Week Teacher: Tips for Tech-Cautious Teachers - 0 views

www.edweek.org/...tln_crowley_tech.html

edtech integration tips advice PTEd preservice newbies

shared by Steve Ransom on 02 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Has this tool been recommended by colleagues or student I respect, or is someone else willing to try this tool with me?
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 02 Nov 12
       
      The importance of having a network of educators to connect with!
  • In other words, model what you want your students to do: Use technology as a tool for learning.
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 02 Nov 12
       
      That's it. YOU have to use the tools first so that you can integrate them with your students in a natural, logical way. Demonstrate being a [digital] learner for yourself. Then, it is just a natural extension with your students.
  • Steve Ransom on 02 Nov 12
     
    Excellent suggestions pertinent to EDTS 523 and those new/struggling with education technology. Start small. Just keep growing.
Steve Ransom

How To Cite Social Media: MLA & APA Formats | TeachBytes - 0 views

teachbytes.com/...e-social-media-mla-apa-formats

apa mla citation guide socialmedia

shared by Steve Ransom on 11 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 11 Apr 13
     
    Useful to all as social media becomes source material that needs to be properly cited.
Steve Ransom

About #edteach | #edteach - 0 views

edteachchat.wordpress.com/about

twitterchat twitter chat preservice teachereducation pln

shared by Steve Ransom on 23 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 23 Apr 13
     
    Join a weekly chat focused on issues of relevance to preservice teacher educators. Follow the hashtag #edteach to participate. Right now, it is scheduled for Tuesday evenings at 8 PM EST. Participating is a great way to connect with other new teachers adn preservice teachers and build your network.
Steve Ransom

SpeEdChange: The Church Task Believers - 0 views

speedchange.blogspot.com/...the-church-task-believers.html

teaching pedagogy seattime technology multitasking students compliance

shared by Steve Ransom on 07 May 13 - No Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 07 May 13
     
    If you want to have your thinking pushed regarding teaching and technology, Ira Socol's blog here is one to subscribe to. This post is a prime example that challenges many of our assumptions about learning, school, and technology.
Steve Ransom

Bring Your Own Device: A Guide for Schools - 0 views

education.alberta.ca/...ide%20revised%202012-09-05.pdf

byod policy guide pdf

shared by Steve Ransom on 30 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 30 Oct 12
     
    This guide examines the use of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) models in schools. It looks at the potential opportunities and benefits, as well as the considerations, risks and implications that arise when schools allow students and staff to use personally owned devices in the classroom and school environments. Strategies, tips and techniques are included to address the considerations and manage the risks.
  • Steve Ransom on 30 Oct 12
     
    A great example of where school districts are heading regarding students bringing their own devices to school for learning. It's full of theoretical benefits, risks, and things to think about.
Steve Ransom

Clive Thompson on Why Kids Can't Search | Magazine - 0 views

www.wired.com/...st_thompson_searchresults

search education Google informationliteracy searching students

shared by Steve Ransom on 09 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Who’s to blame? Not the students. If they’re naive at Googling, it’s because the ability to judge information is almost never taught in school.
  • And by the time kids get to college, professors assume they already have this skill.
  • Students quickly gain the ability to detect if a top-ranked page about Martin Luther King Jr. was actually posted by white supremacists.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • “crap detection 101,” as digital guru Howard Rheingold dubs it, isn’t easy. One prerequisite is that you already know a lot about the world.
  • group of college students
  • Pan grimly concluded that students aren’t assessing information sources on their own merit—they’re putting too much trust in the machine.
  • High school and college students may be “digital natives,” but they’re wretched at searching.
  • In 1955, we wondered why Johnny can’t read. Today the question is, why can’t Johnny search?
  • Steve Ransom on 09 Nov 11
     
    "Google makes broad-based knowledge more important, not less. A good education is the true key to effective search. But until our kids have that, let's make sure they don't always take PageRank at its word."
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