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Ed Webb

Toughest college test: No cell phone, no Facebook | StarTribune.com - 5 views

  • This story really sums up what it is to be a student right now in this century. I am actually a student of Professor LaMarre's and in this very class. My generation really does not know what it is like to be outside of this instant communication with friends and other people which has really deteriorated the true relationships people used to and were forced to build with one another. The ability to escape from everyone is impossible. I went to Mexico for 3 weeks over winter break to study and was not able to escape my parents need for me to be in contact through email or text... interesting to think about what it has done to parent/child relationships and especially our interpersonal relationships with significant others.
  • I moved to U.S. 2 decades ago. I came from a 3rd world country (it was at that time). But I had learned how to use the abacus, and do simple mulitiplication in my head. I'm sorry to say this but Americans are FAR behind on REAL education. While you guys play party games in schools and pass that as education. It is quite pathetic what America pass as an education in the public system. By the time I had caught up with English in my 2nd year in American school, I had realized how stupid American pubilc schools are and how inept they are. By 1st and 2nd grade I was memorizing simple mulitplication and division in my third world country. In U.S. kids don't even know what division is until 3rd grade. We didn't have Stadiums, auditoriums, computer labs, track and field track, swimming pool. We didn't even have central heat or air! We got our excercise out on a dirt field with some swings, bats and balls. What's the next generation going to do for a learning experience? "Walking to the mailbox" ??? Because in a few decades, America will be so fat and obese that it will be a revelation to all the fat americans, what it was like to actually walk to the mailbox.
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    Reader comments enlightening.
Ben Rimes

A Call for Technology Leadership - 16 views

  • (1) modeling the use of new technologies in communicating to students, teachers and the general public; (2) ensuring that technology becomes integral to teaching 21st-century skills from critical thinking and problem solving to collaboration and information literacy in the classroom; (3) boosting Web 2.0 applications and tools as key components of student learning; (4) offering professional development in these technologies and deploying the online tools that help teachers create learning communities among themselves; and (5) requiring better balanced assessments of student work—including project-based learning enhanced by technology tools—in an age driven by NCLB-oriented testing and better use of data from the assessments to help students improve their performance.
    • Ben Rimes
       
      Asking any leader to model effective strategies makes sense, but shouldn't the imperative of offering professional development in newer communications tools come first? Some district leader's I can see jupming into new tools and ways to communicate, but you can't expect all veteran leaders to adopt new tools without the development and support they'll need.
    • Ben Rimes
       
      I'm curious to know in how many districts does the Superintendent serve as the curriculum leader capable of making the sweeping changes to move a district towards project-based learning. I have an inkling that many superintendents find niches that make them valubale, whether it's focusing on assessment, community relations, curriculum, or something else.
  • The revised edition also includes a self-assessment for superintendents to evaluate how far their districts have come along the technological curve. CoSN’s CEO Keith Krueger explains that his organization’s research shows that many district leaders are behind that curve, and the new document opens with a letter:
    • Ben Rimes
       
      Not surprising at all...
  • e cautions that the large-scale changes CoSN is advocating are most likely to happen for district leaders who are not engaged in dozens of other initiatives. “Everybody wants the superintendent to be in the middle of everything,” Reeves explains. “The real acid test is whether you can execute the ‘not-to-do list,’” adding that superintendents need to resist establishing too many priorities. Each of the five areas featured in “Empowering the 21st Century Superintendent” includes a set of resources and a series of action steps for superintendents and district leadership teams. For instance, in the 21st-century skills section, leaders are urged to improve their own such skills, create a vision for integrating them into K12 instruction, audit the district’s strategic plan to see which might be missing and adjust professional development accordingly.
    • Ben Rimes
       
      Love the pragmatism in this quote. Good acknowledgement that district superintendents are engufed in far too much at times, and thus tech-integration may not realistically happen. Good to know that the framework provided by CoSn also includes some directions for district tech teams.
Dave Truss

The Best Sites For Learning About The Holocaust | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 0 views

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    Larry does it again with an amazing Best Of post on the Holocaust!
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    You might also find The Best Web Resources On Darfur useful. Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About The Holocaust (and are accessible to English Language Learners): Here's a very accessible short history of the Holocaust.
Dave Truss

Is the term 21st Century out of date? | U Tech Tips - 7 views

  • They all tell us what we want our kids to turn out like. They all remind us what we need to value in education. But we don’t. At least not in action. (GENERALIZATION ALERT:) Schools continue to push content-driven curricula. Teachers continue to plan lessons building expertise within the discipline. And if students get our “21st Century Skills”, it’s because of an exception-to-the-rule teacher, choices the students make outside of class, or just plain luck. We all know that what we need is buy-in. We see the success stories, celebrate the schools that do it, and ultimately wonder, what does it take to make it work everywhere? Buy-in. So back to the teacher accessibility issue. How do we ensure that teachers see teaching a 21st Century Curriculum as part of their job?
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    Remind yourselves that your teachers have ALWAYS been trying to prepare their students to succeed in the world they will live in. And then collaborate with them on how that world has changed.
Suzie Nestico

12 Rules for Writing Great Letters to Request Action - Wrightslaw - 1 views

  • 4. You negotiate with the school for special education services.
    • Suzie Nestico
       
      The purpose of the letter could vary.  This format can easily be used for a variety of issues.
  • 5. Never threaten. Never telegraph your punches!
  • Fear of the Unknown As a negotiator, one of the most powerful forces you have on your side is the "Fear of the Unknown." When you threaten, you are telling the other side what you plan to do. If you tell them what you plan to do, you have told them how to protect themselves. At that moment, you lose your advantage - which is the wonderful, powerful Fear of the Unknown. Never telegraph your punches – you will destroy their power and effectiveness. 
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  • 6. Make several (unpleasant but necessary) assumptions.
  • 7. Make your problem unique.
  • 8. You ARE writing letters to a Stranger who has the power to resolve the problem
  • 9. Write letters to the school as business letters.
    • Suzie Nestico
       
      Again, writing does not have to be simply for a school.  This can easily be adapted to any audience.
  • 10. NEVER make judgments.
  • 11. Write your letter chronologically.
  • 2. Write letters that are clear and easy to understand.
  • Before you write a letter, you need answer these questions.
  • 2. Your First Letter is Always a Draft
  • 3. Allow for "cooling off" and revision time.
Vicki Davis

% Teachers with PhD's - 41 views

That sounds like a pretty overwhelming number to get. Are you perhaps mixing your numbers? Do you want percentage of teachers with doctoral degrees and what COLLEGE they attended, perhaps? Thi...

college research

Brendan Murphy

Homework or Not? That is the (Research) Question. | District Administration Magazine - 3 views

    • Brendan Murphy
       
      Nothing at the end of this article is supported by research. It's like they looked at the research above and then went back to conventional wisdom, which in this case is wrong according to research. 
  • evaluated homework research and concluded that it does not significantly impact achievement— and can even be detrimental.
    • Brendan Murphy
       
      Feeling good about yourself and spending time in a quiet place do as much good as the actual homework assignment. 
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    • Brendan Murphy
       
      Don't even bother reading past here. It's like they forgot the research that sparked the idea for this article and went back to what grandma used to say. 
Dennis OConnor

The Wrath Against Khan: Why Some Educators Are Questioning Khan Academy - 6 views

  • While "technology will replace teachers" seems like a silly argument to make, one need only look at the state of most school budgets and know that something's got to give. And lately, that something looks like teachers' jobs, particularly to those on the receiving end of pink slips. Granted, we haven't implemented a robot army of teachers to replace those expensive human salaries yet (South Korea is working on the robot teacher technology. I'll keep you posted.). But we are laying off teachers in mass numbers. Teachers know their jobs are on the line, something that's incredibly demoralizing for a profession already struggles mightily to retain qualified people.
  • it's hard not to see that wealth as having political not just economic impact. Indeed, the same week that Bill Gates spoke to the Council of Chief State School Officers about ending pay increases for graduate degrees in teaching, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued almost the very same statement. What does all of this have to do with Sal Khan? Well, nothing... and everything.
  • One of education historian Diane Ravitch's oft-uttered complaints is that we now have a bunch of billionaires like Gates dictating education policy and education reform, without ever having been classroom teachers themselves (or without having attended public school). But the skepticism about Khan Academy isn't just a matter of wealth or credentials of Khan or his backers. It's a matter of pedagogy.
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  • No doubt, Khan has done something incredible by creating thousands of videos, distributing them online for free, and now designing an analytics dashboard for people to monitor and guide students' movements through the Khan Academy material. And no doubt, lots of people say they've learned a lot by watching the videos. The ability pause, rewind, and replay is often cited as the difference between "getting" the subject matter through classroom instruction and "getting it" via Khan Academy's lecture-demonstrations.
  • Although there's a tech component here that makes this appear innovative, that's really a matter of form, not content, that's new. There's actually very little in the videos that distinguishes Khan from "traditional" teaching. A teacher talks. Students listen. And that's "learning." Repeat over and over again (Pause, rewind, replay in this case). And that's "drilling."
Patti Porto

Connected Educator Month - US DOE - 3 views

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    "For these reasons, the U.S. Department of Education's Connected Educators initiative is launching Connected Educator Month in August 2012. Throughout August, there will be coordinated opportunities to participate in events and activities in dozens of online locations to develop skills and enhance one's personal learning network."
anonymous

End of Europe's Middle Ages - The Impact of the Printing Press - 4 views

  • Printing was considered vulgar and only for the poor. Many aristocratic bibliophiles refused to disgrace their collections with the presence of a non-manuscript text. It fell to the lower classes to recognize the importance of the printing press. And they did - by the end of the fifteenth century, more than one thousand printers had printed between eight and ten million copies of more than forty thousand book titles.
    • anonymous
       
      What does this remind you of? This technology was rejected by aristocrats but picked up by the lower classes whose use of it changed the world forever. Sound familiar?
    • anonymous
       
      "Web 2.0 tools were considered vulgar and only for the students. Many school districts refused to disgrace their classroms with the presence of a blog or a wiki. It fell to the students to recognize the importance of the tools. And they did - by the end of the 2009, more than 23 million people had Facebook accounts and most students carried cell phones, yet they were blocked at school."
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    "Printing was considered vulgar and only for the poor. Many aristocratic bibliophiles refused to disgrace their collections with the presence of a non-manuscript text. It fell to the lower classes to recognize the importance of the printing press. And they did - by the end of the fifteenth century, more than one thousand printers had printed between eight and ten million copies of more than forty thousand book titles. "
Eloise Pasteur

Clark Aldrich's Style Guide for Serious Games and Simulations: The Reason Why Most Rese... - 0 views

  • Why is most research on business issues so useless? Why doesn't it drive the results that businesses require? Organizations may have commissioned reports on new markets, or Second Life, or Web 2.0, or outsourcing or re-insourcing, but why don't the reports have a richer impact?
  • I have come to the fairly unambiguous conclusion: most business research sits unused on shelves. It is thus a valid question to ask, especially in tightening budgets, why is that so? Is that inevitable? And, to a lesser degree, who's fault is that?
  • The big problem is that most business research relies on the same faulty intellectual constructs as other forms of linear content - it relies on linear analysis, case studies, and inspirational examples. And like with movies and magazines, they impress us with their cleverness but don't actually enable effective action (or any action, except more presentations), because they ar not designed to. The reports focus on knowing, not doing. The people at the receiving end of such research seldom turn the concepts into productive actions, because the research does not help them enough in doing so. At best, most research I have studied only takes the reader on 20% of the journey.
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  • The content model advocated on this blog is that of actions, systems, and results. And, there is a multiplier effect between them. If you do not have all three you really don't have anything.
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    Discussion of business research, why it's not so great and how it could be improved
Vicki Davis

Educational Vodcasting - Home - 0 views

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    Some cool science teachers at necc who have "flipped the classroom" -- they record their lectures and make them available on itunes to download. Then, they do "homework" in class w/ the teachers. Listening to the podcast of class is their assignment -- the homework is what they do in class. This flipped method had some people talking today in our workshop. So so cool! This makes so much sense -- take the one to many work delivery and make it the assignment -- take the work where you need many to many to help one another and have that in the classroom. Can you see class evolving? wow! This makes so much sense.
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    Use of podcasting to "flip" the classroom experienc.e Lectures are assignments to listen to on the podcast -- homework is the classwork now so teachers can help the students one on one. How much sense does that make! Wow!
Deb Henkes

Wissahickon School District's eToolBox - home - 1 views

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    Great wiki with best practices in all types of areas.
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    Dianne Krause, Instructional Technology specialist, from Blue Bell, PA USA (http://diannekrause.edublogs.org) has put together an incredible e toolbox wiki that is worth sharing with anyone using a wiki or any web 2.o tool! She shares the tool and gives an example, exactly the type of thing inquiring teachers want to see. She is modeling instead of just expecting them to figure it out! Great job, Diane - you are my new wiki go-to gal! Wow! From digital portfolios to online databases and Ning, she does a GREAT job on this wiki of putting it all together.
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    eToolbox wiki is a wonderful resource, on the Edublogs list of Best Educational Wikis of 2010.
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    This eToolbox wiki is a wonderful resource, on the Edublogs list of Best Educational Wikis of 2010.
Brian C. Smith

Semantic Web - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • At its core, the semantic web comprises a set of design principles,[4] collaborative working groups, and a variety of enabling technologies. Some elements of the semantic web are expressed as prospective future possibilities that have yet to be implemented or realized.[2] Other elements of the semantic web are expressed in formal specifications
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    Diigo seems to be getting us closer to the sematic web. How does this translate to our schools today and in the future?
Ed Webb

Office of Educational Technology (OET) - 2 views

  • Secretary Arne Duncan invites comments on the draft National Educational Technology Plan.
  • This plan is a draft. "We are open to your comments," Secretary Duncan said. "Tell us about how technology has changed your school or classroom." Read the plan. Share your comments, videos and examples of how technology is changing and improving education.
Ed Webb

Seen Not Heard- Boing Boing - 3 views

  • Cameras don't make you feel more secure; they make you feel twitchy and paranoid. Some people say that the only people who don't like school cameras are the people that have something to hide. But having the cameras is a constant reminder that the school does not trust you and that the school is worried your fellow classmates might go on some sort of killing rampage.
  • Some people say youngsters are more disrespectful than ever before. But if you were in an environment where you were constantly being treated as a criminal, would you still be respectful? In high school, one of my favorite English teachers never had trouble with her students. The students in her class were the most well behaved in the school--even if they were horrible in other teachers' classes. We were well-mannered, addressed her as "Ma'am," and stood when she entered the room. Other teachers were astonished that she could manage her students so well, especially since many of them were troublemakers. She accomplished this not though harsh discipline, but by treating us with respect and being genuinely hurt if we did not return it.
  • The Library and a few good teachers are what kept me from dropping out.
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  • Schools today are not training students to be good citizens: they are training students to be obedient.
    • Ed Webb
       
      Schools have always attempted to teach this. And they have always ended up teaching how not to get caught.
  • the football team got a bigger budget than the Library
  • I even read about a girl who ran a library of banned books out of her locker.
  • @SchoolSecurityBlog, the issue is that in schools your constitutional rights are completely ignored. Random bag searches are not conducted with probable cause or a search warrant. If students spend the first part of their life in an environment where their rights are ignored, then they will not insist on them later in life. Someone might make the argument that since students are minors that they don't have rights. It is a weak argument. For one thing, I reached the age of majority while still in public school, and they still ignored my rights.
  • most of these so called "reasonable risk reduction measures" are not reasonable nor do they reduce risk. Cameras are entirely ineffective in preventing crime or violence. My school had a camera watching the vending machines, but a student still robbed them and was not even caught (he took the simple measure of obscuring his face). I acknowledge that there have been many court ruling that make what schools do legal. However, even with the "in loco parentis" policy in place, even my parents would not have a legal right to search my stuff without my permission when I turned 18 (which is how old I was my senior year). Yet the school could search my bag if they wanted to. Or my friends car (I am pretty sure he was also 18 when that happened, he was only a few months younger than I). That means that once a kid turns 18, the school system technically had more control over the kid than his parents do. Another problem that I have with in loco parentis is that the school really is not a students parent. A parent presumably has the child's best interests at heart, if they didn't it could be grounds for the state to take the child away from the parent. Unfortunately, school faculty members do not always have the student's best interests at heart. They should and often do, but many times some faculty members just like messing with people. It is an unfortunate fact, and one that I am sure many people would like to ignore, but the fact of the matter is that bullies are not confined to the student body. Also parents go to extraordinary measures for their children. They pay to keep them clothed and fed and cared for. They devote endless hours taking care of them. Therefore it makes sense that they should be granted extraordinary legal measures to take care of their children. To grant these same legal measures to an arbitrary school faculty member is really in insult to the hard and loving work of parents everywhere.
  • The schools of decades past seemed to get by without universal surveillance. Why is it all of the sudden essential today? Could many of these security measures be over reactions stemming from mass publicized incidents of school violence?
Brendan Murphy

Teacher Magazine: Taking Back School Reform: A Conversation Between Diane Ravitch and M... - 5 views

  • deep-seated wish to create escape routes from public education.
    • Brendan Murphy
       
      Does supporting vouchers mean we are giving up on schools?
  • Since there is no way to know who will be an effective teacher
    • Brendan Murphy
       
      It is possible to determine if someone will be or is a good teachers through oberservation and coaching, which costs money and time and has rarely been used effectively in the past.
  • What if we could channel the financial and human resources spent on the machinery of high-stakes testing into a robust, widely distributed program of professional development?
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  • He told them that the more they know about the particulars of instruction, the less effective they’ll be, for that nitty-gritty knowledge will blur their perception of the problem
    • Brendan Murphy
       
      I suppose if all you care about is the budget then that is the correct attitude.
  • children from every background will respond to a curriculum that respects their minds and feeds them with rich experiences.
    • Brendan Murphy
       
      Of course they will. Is your curriculum rich?
  • It is not just policy makers needing to spend time in schools. It is teachers needing to spend time in the policy making environment - yes, Dept of Ed has teacher ambassador program, but I would also suggest state legislators, Congressmen and Senators look more aggressively to having fellows on their staffs who are professional educators - it would save a LOT of problems downstream on both sides
  • Modeling modeling.asu.edu. This program shows improvement in both teacher and student understanding of physics.
  • CIMM which is a spin off of Modeling and is attacking the math problems in lower grades
yc c

?! - 4 views

    • yc c
       
      Mission 125: Use no electrical or battery-driven devices for 48 hours and someone asks: does tv count? <- This is sooo American! lol ;D))
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    missions
Melinda Waffle

Paper Cranes for Japan - 0 views

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    If you use Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (or know someone that does), here is a right now project to tie in. Make cranes to generate a donation to Japan, and participate in a communal art project.
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