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Tony Richards

The Atlantic Online | January/February 2010 | What Makes a Great Teacher? | Amanda Ripley - 14 views

www.theatlantic.com/...good-teaching

what makes a good teacher good article read

shared by Tony Richards on 04 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Tony Richards on 04 Feb 10
     
    "What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo
Vicki Davis

'iPad': Analysts Expect Apple to Release Tablet Computer - Science News | Science & Tec... - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...0,2933,538919,00.html

education apple gadget technology edu_news

shared by Vicki Davis on 11 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 11 Aug 09
     
    The iPad is coming, the iPad is coming -- apple tablet computer - sort of like a large iphone has rumors flying that it is coming very soon with a really amazing price point -- between $500-$700.
Dave Truss

YouTube - WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson - 11 views

www.youtube.com/watch

connectivism learning ideas creativity youtube

shared by Dave Truss on 01 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Dave Truss on 01 Nov 10
     
    Most exhilarating is Johnson's conclusion that with today's tools and environment, radical innovation is extraordinarily accessible to those who know how to cultivate it. Where Good Ideas Come From is essential reading for anyone who wants to know how to come up with tomorrow's great ideas. "Chance favours the connected mind."
Ruth Howard

Half an Hour: An Operating System for the Mind - 0 views

halfanhour.blogspot.com/...operating-system-for-mind.html

literacy knowledge critical_thinking

shared by Ruth Howard on 27 Sep 09 - Cached
  • The reason I pose these questions in particular is that, while it is necessary (and possible) to teach facts to people, it comes with a price. And the price is this: facts learned in this way, and especially by rote, and especially at a younger age, take a direct route into the mind, and bypass a person's critical and reflective capacities, and indeed, become a part of those capacities in the future.When you teach children facts as facts, and when you do it through a process of study and drill, it doesn't occur to children to question whether or not those facts are true, or appropriate, or moral, or legal, or anything else. Rote learning is a short circuit into the brain. It's direct programming. People who study, and learn, that 2+2=4, know that 2+2=4, not because they understand the theory of mathematics, not because they have read Hilbert and understand formalism, or can refute Brouwer and reject intuitionism, but because they know (full stop) 2+2=4.
  • First
  • . There are more facts in the world than anyone could know
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • Second
  • facts change
  • We need to be able to determine what is salient or important to ourselves and to others.
  • Third
  • Fourth
  • you need some mechansism to detect and reject false representations of facts
  • comparing and assessing facts
  • Fifth
  • basis for action
  • we can create facts in the world
  • Sixth
  • we need the capacity to act
  • And what we discover when we think about it this way is that it's not simple whether or not we need facts that is important, but also, what format the facts are in that is equally important, if not more important.
  • You need, in other words, need to acquire facts in a format appropriate to your knowledge system.
  • 21st century skills are, in short, an operating system for the mind.
  • They constitute the processes and capacities that make it possible for people to navigate a fact-filled landscape, a way to see, understand and acquire those facts in such a way as to be relevant and useful, and in the end, to be self-contained and autonomous agents capable of making their own decisions and directing their own lives, rather than people who need to learn ever larger piles of 'facts' in order to do even the most basic tasks.
  • What we have learned - what we are understanding, uniquely, in the 21st century - is that the nature of facts is very different from anything we thought before:
  • empowerment,
  • Today - surely we've seen enough evidence of this! - if you simply follow the rules, do what you're told, do your job and stay out of trouble, you will be led to ruin.
  • an abundance of facts will not help you, it will instead sweep you over the waterfall.
  • Dave Truss on 27 Sep 09
     
    And the price is this: facts learned in this way, and especially by rote, and especially at a younger age, take a direct route into the mind, and bypass a person's critical and reflective capacities, and indeed, become a part of those capacities in the future.
  • Ruth Howard on 26 Feb 10
     
    while it is necessary (and possible) to teach facts to people, it comes with a price. And the price is this: facts learned in this way, and especially by rote, and especially at a younger age, take a direct root into the mind, and bypass a person's critical and reflective capacities, and indeed, become a part of those capacities in the future.\n\nWhen you teach children facts as facts, and when you do it through a process of study and drill, it doesn't occur to children to question whether or not those facts are true, or appropriate, or moral, or legal, or anything else. Rote learning is a short circuit into the brain. It's direct programming. People who study, and learn, that 2+2=4, know that 2+2=4, not because they understand the theory of mathematics, not because they have read Hilbert and understand formalism, or can refute Brouwer and reject intuitionism, but because they know (full stop) 2+2=4.\n\nI used the phrase "it's direct programming" deliberately. This is an analogy we can wrap our minds around. We can think of direct instruction as being similar to direct programming. It is, effectively, a mechanism of putting content into a learner's mind as effectively and efficiently as possible, so that when the time comes later (as it will) that the learner needs to use that fact, it is instantly and easily accessible.
Vicki Davis

The Apple-Microsoft spat over App Store fees could shape the future of both Office and ... - 2 views

thenextweb.com/...future-of-both-office-and-ipad

education news microsoft apple

shared by Vicki Davis on 12 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 12 Dec 12
     
    In a huge turn of irony, at least if one considers how Bill Gates began his programming career, a spat over Office 365 coming to the ipad and Apple's desire to get 30% commissions for anyone signing up for the service if it originates on the ipad, may mean that office 365 won't come to the ipad at all. The evolution of the platform to tablet devices is critical to software companies and yet, many balk at the steep cut some like Apple take. It is interesting to watch, but there is a bigger issue here. Microsoft continues to have the best Office suite, but, as with Google Drive, many move because of a lack of ubiquity and collaborative ability driven by the walls erected by Microsoft in their traditional, but understandable proprietary system. I have to think that there are bigger issues at stake for Microsoft here. These are interesting times, to say the least, as I sit here watching Batman on my Apple TV streaming via the wifi and read this article on my ipad as I blog in the den using a bluetooth logitech keyboard.
Vicki Davis

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Join the Flat Classroom Global Book Club! #flatclass - 1 views

coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/...lassroom-global-book-club.html

education flatclass globaled flatclassroom edu_news digitalcitizenship bestpractices

shared by Vicki Davis on 17 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 17 Jan 12
     
    It is finally here. Here are the details on our Flat Classroom global book club. (click the link for more) Every week for 10 weeks we will meet at an alternating time - 12 hours apart. (For the East Coast USA it is Sundays at 6 pm Eastern or Monday mornings at 6 am eastern)  Visit our Book club calendar to convert these times to your Time Zone. Subscribe to this calendar via Google calendar to keep up with events.This is Sunday evenings at 22:00GMT alternating with Monday mornings at 10:00GMT in our Blackboard Collaborate room https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007066&password=M.065891D192F8072208BF5756999CE0 .   The book club is free and everyone is welcome. #flatclass Book Club Meeting Times Week and Date Time Topic of Conversation Week 1: Sunday March 11 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 1 - Flattening Classrooms through Global Collaboration (p 1-17) Chapter 2 - Impact on Learning: Research in the Global Collaborative Classroom (p18-30) Week 2: Monday, March 19 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 3 - Step 1: Connection (p 31-61) Week 3: Sunday, March 25 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 4 - Step 2: Communication (p 62-96) Week 4: Monday, April 2 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 5 - Step 3: Citizenship (p 97-125) Take a break. Week 5: Sunday, April 15 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 6 - Step 4: Contribution and Collaboration (p 126-157) Week 6: Monday, April 23 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 7 - Step 5: Choice (p 158-196) Week 7: Sunday, April 29 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 8 - Step 6: Creation (p197-214) Week 8: Monday, May 7 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 9 - Step 7: Celebration (p 215-234) Week 9: Sunday, May 13 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 10 - Designing and Managing a Global Collaborative Project (p 235-267) Week 10: Monday, May 21 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 11 - Challenge-Based Professional Development (p 268-293) Chapter 12: Rock the World (p 293 - 304)  We're also inviting the educators featured in each chapter to be with us for the conversations about "th
Vicki Davis

Windows 9 coming in 2015, will try its hardest to distance itself from the Windows 8 tr... - 6 views

www.extremetech.com/...from-the-windows-8-train-wreck

education news windows

shared by Vicki Davis on 18 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 18 Jan 14
     
    Windows 9 is coming in 2015. Many think Windows 8 was a trainwreck. I think one thing all companies should realize is that as the market matures, the older people who have been using Windows (or any other program for a long period of time) not only want to know HOW to do things the new way but WHY they should. I know many who would be happy to pay for and keep a Windows XP interface for a long time. I understand why the surface style was needed for surface devices but many would be happy with an older system using a traditional windows view.
Vicki Davis

Bing censoring Chinese language search results for users in the US | Technology | thegu... - 2 views

www.theguardian.com/...hinese-language-search-results

education news censorship bing

shared by Vicki Davis on 12 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 12 Feb 14
     
    The great firewall of china comes to the US via Bing. It looks like Bing is filtering Chinese language searches in the US to match more what someone would see INSIDE China. This is pretty disturbing but also points to the challenges of creating different "filters" by country and also knowing where people are coming from (due to the use of proxies.)
Terry Elliott

World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others | Edutopia - 0 views

www.edutopia.org/age-technology-will-richardson

shared by Terry Elliott on 16 Dec 08 - Cached
  • We must also expand our ability to think critically about the deluge of information now being produced by millions of amateur authors without traditional editors and researchers as gatekeepers. In fact, we need to rely on trusted members of our personal networks to help sift through the sea of stuff, locating and sharing with us the most relevant, interesting, useful bits. And we have to work together to organize it all, as long-held taxonomies of knowledge give way to a highly personalized information environment.
    • Jeff Richardson
      Jeff Richardson on 16 Dec 08
       
      Good reason for teaching dig citizenship
    • Terry Elliott
      Terry Elliott on 28 Dec 08
       
      What Will suggests here is rising complexity, but for this to succeed we don't need to fight our genetic heritage. Put yourself on the Serengeti plains, a hunter-gatherer searching for food. You are thinking critically about a deluge of data coming through your senses (modern folk discount this idea, but any time in jobs that require observation in the 'wild' (farming comes to mind) will disabuse you rather quickly that the natural world is providing a clear channel.) You are not only relying upon your own 'amateur' abilities but those of your family and extended family to filter the noise of the world to get to the signal. This tribe is the original collaborative model and if we do not try to push too hard against this still controlling 'mean gene' then we will as a matter of course become a nation of collaborative learning tribes.
  • Collaboration in these times requires our students to be able to seek out and connect with learning partners, in the process perhaps navigating cultures, time zones, and technologies. It requires that they have a vetting process for those they come into contact with: Who is this person? What are her passions? What are her credentials? What can I learn from her?
    • Terry Elliott
      Terry Elliott on 28 Dec 08
       
      Aye, aye, captain. This is the classic problem of identity and authenticity. Can I trust this person on all the levels that are important for this particular collaboration? A hidden assumption here is that students have a passion themselves to learn something from these learning partners. What will be doing in this collaboration nation to value the ebb and flow of these learners' interests? How will we handle the idiosyncratic needs of the child who one moment wants to be J.K.Rowling and the next Madonna. Or both? What are the unintended consequences of creating an truly collaborative nation? Do we know? Would this be a 'worse' world for the corporations who seek our dollars and our workers? Probably. It might subvert the corporation while at the same moment create a new body of corporate cooperation. Isn't it pretty to think so.
  • Likewise, we must make sure that others can locate and vet us.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • technical know-how is not enough. We must also be adept at negotiating, planning, and nurturing the conversation with others we may know little about -- not to mention maintaining a healthy balance between our face-to-face and virtual lives (another dance for which kids sorely need coaching).
    • Terry Elliott
      Terry Elliott on 28 Dec 08
       
      All of these skills are technical know how. We differentiate between hard and soft skills when we should be showing how they are all of a piece. I am so far from being an adequate coach on all of these matters it appalls me. I feel like the teacher who is one day ahead of his students and fears any question that skips ahead to chapters I have not read yet.
  • The Collaboration Age comes with challenges that often cause concern and fear. How do we manage our digital footprints, or our identities, in a world where we are a Google search away from both partners and predators? What are the ethics of co-creation when the nuances of copyright and intellectual property become grayer each day? When connecting and publishing are so easy, and so much of what we see is amateurish and inane, how do we ensure that what we create with others is of high quality?
    • Terry Elliott
      Terry Elliott on 28 Dec 08
       
      Partners and predators? OK, let's not in any way go down this road. This is the road our mainstream media has trod to our great disadvantage as citizens. These are not co-equal. Human brains are not naturally probablistic computer. We read about a single instance of internet predation and we equate it with all the instances of non-predation. We all have zero tolerance policies against guns in the school, yet our chances of being injured by those guns are fewer than a lightning strike. We cannot ever have this collaborative universe if we insist on a zero probability of predation. That is why, for good and ill, schools will never cross that frontier. It is in our genes. "Better safe than sorry" vs. "Risks may be our safeties in disguise."
  • Students are growing networks without us, writing Harry Potter narratives together at FanFiction.net, or trading skateboarding videos on YouTube. At school, we disconnect them not only from the technology but also from their passion and those who share it.
  • The complexities of editing information online cannot be sequestered and taught in a six-week unit. This has to be the way we do our work each day.
  • The process of collaboration begins with our willingness to share our work and our passions publicly -- a frontier that traditional schools have rarely crossed.
  • Look no further than Wikipedia to see the potential; say what you will of its veracity, no one can deny that it represents the incredible potential of working with others online for a common purpose.
  • The technologies we block in their classrooms flourish in their bedrooms
  • Anyone with a passion for something can connect to others with that same passion -- and begin to co-create and colearn the same way many of our students already do.
  • I believe that is what educators must do now. We must engage with these new technologies and their potential to expand our own understanding and methods in this vastly different landscape. We must know for ourselves how to create, grow, and navigate these collaborative spaces in safe, effective, and ethical ways. And we must be able to model those shifts for our students and counsel them effectively when they run across problems with these tools.
  • Jeff Richardson on 16 Dec 08
     
    Article by Wil Richardson on Collaboration
Vicki Davis

The Way of the Wiki: Building Online Creativity and Cooperation | Edutopia - 0 views

www.edutopia.org/hats-next-2008-wiki-technology

citations coolcatteacher_testimonials edu_trends education inthenews web 2.0 wiki

shared by Vicki Davis on 20 Aug 08 - Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 20 Aug 08
     
    This article in edutopia talks about wikis and how we use them in our classrooms. Also quoted in the article, some other good friends of mine, Stewart Mader, and Louise Maine. Of course, if I could just keep myself from using southern slang, I'd make my Mom a little happier, but it keeps on coming out! I had completely eradicated it from my speech but when I moved home, I guess I just inhaled all of this southernness and it just comes out!
  • Vicki Davis on 20 Aug 08
     
    Edutopia article on wikis
Vicki Davis

ED in '08 Blogger Summit - 0 views

www.edin08.com/...default.aspx

ad4dcss blog edu_news edublog edublogger education professionaldevelopment

shared by Vicki Davis on 06 May 08 - Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 06 May 08
     
    Conference for educational bloggers -- too bad it is in the waning weeks of the school year.
  • Vicki Davis on 06 May 08
     
    Join thought leaders in education policy and national politics to discuss how the Internet is changing the discourse of education reform, and how those changes are affecting the 2008 presidential election. ED in '08 welcomes ed-bloggers and political bloggers to take part in the discussion. I'm glad the "thought leaders" in American can come, however, the timing of this conference precludes most teachers I know from even considering coming we're all in the "home stretch" and rarely are we able to leave the classroom, especially this time of year. I would hope that one day the edublogosphere would truly level us so that teachers would be included in these discussions. For, until that happens, I doubt we'll find any truly relevant change for the classroom.. just more buzzwords and "programs" that don't suit today's student. Hint: If you want reform, ask some good teachers or at least include them in the discussion. There are some big picture thinkers out there that ARE teachers in the public classroom.
Vicki Davis

50 Must-Read Up and Coming Blogs by Teachers | Teaching Tips - 0 views

www.teachingtips.com/...p-and-coming-blogs-by-teachers

blog edublog edublogger education

shared by Vicki Davis on 27 Jul 08 - Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 29 Jul 08
     
    A list of some new "up and coming" blogs -- some I've heard of and some I haven't. Will be perusing this list.
  • Vicki Davis on 29 Jul 08
     
    Cool new list of new bloggers.
Julie Altmark

Free and legal music downloads - Jamendo - 1 views

www.jamendo.com/en

music creativecommons audio mp3 downloads

shared by Julie Altmark on 07 May 08 - Cached
  • Ben W on 07 May 08
     
    Free creative commons licensed music for download!
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Vicki Davis on 24 Aug 08
     
    A website for creative commons music. Searching for places to send my students to get music. The big problem is that there is no guarantee there won't be profanity in the music. We really need to do something about this!
  • Vicki Davis on 24 Aug 08
     
    Digital storytelling music site - just be careful, you may want to prescreen and download some yourself as there may be some profanity.
  • Julie Altmark on 22 Mar 10
     
    a source of free and legal music downloads. The music on Jamendo comes from the artists who upload it themselves. While not all of the music is licensed for re-use, there is a substantial collection of music labeled with a Creative Commons license. As always, before re-using any of the music you download make sure it is labeled for re-use.Applications for EducationJamendo could be a good source of music downloads for students to use in video and podcast projects. Some of the music does come with an "explicit" label so you probably don't want to send young students searching on Jamendo on their own. In that case it would be better for you to build a collection from which students choose.
Vicki Davis

Constructing Modern Knowledge 2009 - 0 views

bengrey.com/...comment-page-1

education learning constructivism edu_trends

shared by Vicki Davis on 25 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 25 Jul 09
     
    Great post by Ben Grey on his participation in Constructing Modern knowledge - he hits several things including the fact that many at the conference said that computer programming should be mandatory for all students and a presenter who said that the problem with today is that too many people have a voice. My comments from Ben's blog are below. Great conversations happening here! Programming - OK, on the programming thing, here are my thoughts. In our curriculum our objective is not as much a specific LANGUAGE. One year I may use HTML with Javascript, this past year I used LSL - what I want kids to know that when they encounter programming and coding that there are certain conventions. Some are case sensitive, some are not. How do you find out how to add to what you know about programming? Do you know where to go to find prewritten code? Can you hack it to make it work to do what you want it to do? We spend about a week - two weeks but I require they know how to handcode hyperlinks and images - they are just too important. But to take 12 weeks or 6 weeks to learn a whole language - yes maybe some value - but to me the value is HOW is the language constructed or built. What are the conventions and how do I educate myself if I am interested in pursuing. What comes out of this time is kids who say either "I never want to do that" or "this is really cool, I love coding." They are doing very simplistic work (although the LSL object languages were pretty advanced) but since we don't have a full course nor time in our curriculum, I do see this as an essential part of what I teach. I'm not teaching it for the language sake but for the sake of understanding the whole body of how languages work - we talk about the different languages and what they are used for as part of Intro to Computer science and have an immersive experience. To me, this is somewhat a comprimise between leaving it out entirely or forcing everyone to take 12 weeks of it. I
David Wetzel

Little Know Ways to Support Earth Day - 5 views

www.teachscienceandmath.com/...nown-ways-to-support-earth-day

CD crayons DVD earth day environment recycling science projects VCR Tapes

shared by David Wetzel on 14 Apr 10 - Cached
  • David Wetzel on 14 Apr 10
     
    Earth Day is around the corner - April 22nd - and every year teachers and students try to come up with new and innovative activities. Recycling is a popular activity to keep the idea recycling going strong. Classrooms often come up with ideas to recycle paper, ink cartridges, plastic bottles, metal cans, and newspapers. However, there are other recycling activities that students can get involved in to support Earth Day.
Patti Porto

Twurdy Search - Search for Readable Results - 19 views

www.twurdy.com/index.php

readability literacy web2.0 web2

shared by Patti Porto on 30 Sep 11 - Cached
  • Patti Porto on 30 Sep 11
     
    Type in a search term and your results come back coded by readability level The name "Twurdy" comes from a play on words with the question "Too Wordy?". The philosophy Everyone has different reading abilities. Some people searching the web are university professors and others are 5 year old children. Twurdy has been created to provide people with access to search results that suit their own readability level. What does it do? Twurdy uses text analysis software to "read" each page before it is displayed in the results. Then Twurdy gives each page a readability level. Twurdy then shows the readability level of the page along with a color coded system to help users determine how easy the page will be to understand.
Vicki Davis

ISTE Eduverse Talks: Join us for ISTE Eduverse Talks: Episode 5 - 0 views

www.iste-eduverse.org/...-eduverse-talks-episode-5.html

education learning flatclassroomproject fcp secondlife opensim virtualworlds

shared by Vicki Davis on 14 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 14 Apr 09
     
    Julie and I are excited about participating in the ISTE Eduverse Talks next Tuesday 5PM SLT. Here are the show details. Just think, if you come in, you can see HOW BAD I am at operating my avatar. (Actually, I don't think I"m as bad as I think, but my strength is definitely scripting.) Julie is having to get up at 2 am to make this happen but she is such an amazing dear -- she is doing it! We are SOOOOOO excited and hope you'll take a venture into SL to join us. We're so excited. Maybe you'll join us. If not, their blog will have the video and audio. Hey, and if you come, I"ll hang around afterwards -- would love to acquire some notecards about your projects. Let's post these in my office in the C.A.V.E. or any where else. When we talk about flattening, it is not just about these projects but all of the projects going on out there -- so share your notecard and we'll find a place to collect and share them all. HOpe to meet you soon! I'm CoolCat Whitman on Second Life (and ReactionGrid -- my favorite home for virtual worlds.)
Anne Bubnic

Open source, digital textbooks coming to California schools - 0 views

arstechnica.com/...ming-to-california-schools.ars

education digital_textbook

shared by Anne Bubnic on 10 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Anne Bubnic on 10 Jun 09
     
    Open source, digital textbooks coming to California schools The cash-strapped Golden State has decided that, starting next school year, schools will be able to use open source, digital textbooks for a number of math and science subjects. Ars talked with Brian Bridges, the Director of the California Learning Resources Network, which will be reviewing the texts, to find out more about what the program entails.
Ed Webb

What Cliff? Data and the Destruction of Public Higher Ed | Just Visiting - 2 views

www.insidehighered.com/...d-destruction-public-higher-ed

education future futures demographics data policy politics neoliberalism analysis opinion

shared by Ed Webb on 01 Mar 22 - Cached
alexabliss and oktayakk liked it
  • That higher education institutions are facing a “demographic cliff” in the coming years has become conventional wisdom. But what if there is no cliff? What if we’ve instead been subjected to a narrative rooted in limited data that serves the interests of corporations and is doing real damage to our public institutions?
  • Currently, the NCES projects relatively constant numbers of high school graduates through 2030, with total graduates expected to increase in the mid-2020s, followed by a modest decline, making the projected 2029–30 number slightly greater than in 2016–17. Further, it is important to note that since the 1970s, the total number of high school graduates in the U.S. has declined several times before. More importantly for higher education, the NCES projects modest increases in higher education enrollments through 2029.
  • WICHE is an interest group with an explicit policy agenda—“focus areas”—which includes “developing and supporting innovations in technology and beyond that improve the quality of postsecondary education and reduce costs.”
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • The purported demographic crisis is being used around the country to fundamentally remake higher education. For example, this is the main argument being advanced by Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature seeking to radically reshape the University of Wisconsin system. This plan calls for the significant expansion of online education, regionalization of the comprehensive campuses, increased campus specialization and program consolidation and elimination, among other long-standing priorities.
  • The current context of higher education provides fertile ground for the uncritical acceptance of the demographic cliff. Higher education enrollments have declined since reaching historic highs in 2010. And decades of political decisions have made higher education tuition-driven, one state budget cycle at a time. We are vulnerable to the demographic cliff framing because of the politically imposed financial crunch in which we exist. Enrollments dictate everything we do.
  • the demographic cliff is an austerity-driven narrative that assumes that public funding will never—and should never—come back
  • Programs must be eliminated, online education must be expanded and, if necessary, even entire campuses must be closed. Higher education must be agile because tax increases are off the table, even as stock markets reach new highs and the income and wealth of the highest earners skyrockets. The interests of corporations and the wealthy will dictate public policy.
  • official population and education data—which come with no political assumptions, narrative or products for sale—show a slowly increasing population, including higher education enrollments, in the coming years.
  • demographic cliff is a manufactured crisis
  • takes advantage of a tuition-dependent higher education system to implement even greater austerity while imposing an education policy agenda that could never be adopted through normal political means
Ed Webb

What's Wrong With the Teenage Mind? - WSJ.com - 19 views

online.wsj.com/...3806504577181351486558984.html

neuroscience children education

shared by Ed Webb on 05 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Adolescence has always been troubled, but for reasons that are somewhat mysterious, puberty is now kicking in at an earlier and earlier age. A leading theory points to changes in energy balance as children eat more and move less.
  • Recent studies in the neuroscientist B.J. Casey's lab at Cornell University suggest that adolescents aren't reckless because they underestimate risks, but because they overestimate rewards—or, rather, find rewards more rewarding than adults do. The reward centers of the adolescent brain are much more active than those of either children or adults. Think about the incomparable intensity of first love, the never-to-be-recaptured glory of the high-school basketball championship. What teenagers want most of all are social rewards, especially the respect of their peers. In a recent study by the developmental psychologist Laurence Steinberg at Temple University, teenagers did a simulated high-risk driving task while they were lying in an fMRI brain-imaging machine. The reward system of their brains lighted up much more when they thought another teenager was watching what they did—and they took more risks.
  • What happens when children reach puberty earlier and adulthood later? The answer is: a good deal of teenage weirdness. Fortunately, developmental psychologists and neuroscientists are starting to explain the foundations of that weirdness.
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  • contemporary children have very little experience with the kinds of tasks that they'll have to perform as grown-ups. Children have increasingly little chance to practice even basic skills like cooking and caregiving. Contemporary adolescents and pre-adolescents often don't do much of anything except go to school. Even the paper route and the baby-sitting job have largely disappeared.
  • This control system depends much more on learning. It becomes increasingly effective throughout childhood and continues to develop during adolescence and adulthood, as we gain more experience. You come to make better decisions by making not-so-good decisions and then correcting them. You get to be a good planner by making plans, implementing them and seeing the results again and again. Expertise comes with experience.
  • first with the industrial revolution and then even more dramatically with the information revolution, children have come to take on adult roles later and later. Five hundred years ago, Shakespeare knew that the emotionally intense combination of teenage sexuality and peer-induced risk could be tragic—witness "Romeo and Juliet." But, on the other hand, if not for fate, 13-year-old Juliet would have become a wife and mother within a year or two.
  • Wide-ranging, flexible and broad learning, the kind we encourage in high-school and college, may actually be in tension with the ability to develop finely-honed, controlled, focused expertise in a particular skill, the kind of learning that once routinely took place in human societies. For most of our history, children have started their internships when they were seven, not 27
  • experience shapes the brain. People often think that if some ability is located in a particular part of the brain, that must mean that it's "hard-wired" and inflexible. But, in fact, the brain is so powerful precisely because it is so sensitive to experience. It's as true to say that our experience of controlling our impulses make the prefrontal cortex develop as it is to say that prefrontal development makes us better at controlling our impulses. Our social and cultural life shapes our biology.
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