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Bonnie Sutton

Making Progress: Rethinking State and School District Policies Concerning Mobile Techno... - 1 views

Making Progress: Rethinking State and School District Policies Concerning Mobile Technologies and Social Media pdf http://www.cosn.org/Default.aspx?TabId=12543 BACKGROUND It is...

Making Progre Rethinking State and School District POLICIES COSN Mobile Technologies Social Media

started by Bonnie Sutton on 15 Apr 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

The Storytelling Project Model: A Theoretical Framework for Critical Examination of Rac... - 2 views

The Storytelling Project Model: A Theoretical Framework for Critical Examination of Racism Through the Arts http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=15787 by Lee Anne Bell & Rosemarie...

Story telling project model race and racism multiracial community comfort zone color blindness

started by Bonnie Sutton on 08 Jun 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

25 (Free) 3D Modeling Applications You Should Not Miss - 1 views

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/25-free-3d-modelling-applications-you-should-not-miss/ Visuals at the web site. Technically, 3 Dimensions refers to objects that are constructed on three plans (X, Y a...

3-d modeling applications 3d application free model open source three dimention Tools

started by Bonnie Sutton on 16 Mar 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Guest post: An 'Arab Spring' of free online higher education By Daniel de Vise - 2 views

Guest post: An 'Arab Spring' of free online higher education By Daniel de Vise http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/guest-post-an-arab-spring-of-free-online-higher-education/201...

Free Higher Education online college courses Udacity Startup

started by Bonnie Sutton on 03 Feb 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Who really benefits from putting high-tech gadgets in classrooms? - 2 views

****************************** From The Los Angeles Times, Saturday, February 4, 2012. See http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20120205,0,639053.column .. Our appreciation to Monty Neil, ...

Julius Genachowski digital playbook learning ecosystems textbooks

started by Bonnie Sutton on 07 Feb 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Technology Cannot Disrupt Education from the Top Down - 2 views

Technology Cannot Disrupt Education From The Top Down Patrick Gibbon Education http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/18/education-technology-disrupt/ Editor's note: Guest contributor Patrick Gibbo...

education technology topdown disruptive

started by Bonnie Sutton on 19 Dec 11 no follow-up yet
Jim Shimabukuro

Rupert Murdoch uses eG8 to talk up net's power to transform education | Media | guardia... - 6 views

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    "Rupert Murdoch uses eG8 to talk up net's power to transform education News Corp chairman claims 'Victorian' schools are 'last holdout from digital revolution' Kim Willsher in Paris guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 May 2011 18.10 BST Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation founder and chairman, used his address to the eG8 Forum in Paris on Tuesday to call for more investment in education and "unlocking the potential" of the world's children. Murdoch said it was not a question of putting a computer in every school, but concentrating on opening up opportunities for youngsters to flourish by using targeted and tailored software. News Corp moved into the $500bn (£310bn) US education sector in late 2010, paying about $360m in cash for 90% of technology company Wireless Generation, which provides mobile and web software to enable teachers to use data to assess student progress and deliver personalised learning."
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    From Harry Keller
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    Interesting contrast with Murdoch's attitude in 2009 - see http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/09/murdoch-google - but is it really a contrast?
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    We've had Ely Broad, Bill Gates, and a host of other billionaires (even George Lucas) attempting to "fix" our education system. They're not doing so well. What is so interesting to me about Murdoch, despite his pirate-like business practices, is that he sees what I think is the real direction for the future of education. Oddly unlike his right-wing colleagues, he's not pushing for vouchers or more school privatization. Unlike the technocrats, he's not pushing for more and more computers in schools. He sees the solution to our schooling problems as "targeted and tailored software." Many (maybe most) countries, including the U.S., lack the political will as societies to fix education the way that Finland did. Software is the other path. Much discussion today centers around the platform. Will we use smart phones or e-tablets or netbooks? Will we see $1 apiece apps as the learning modules or cloud-based solutions? Will our new learning software run on iOS or Android? All of that is window dressing and barely worthy of discussion. For me, Murdoch hit the nail on the head. We have too little software "targeted and tailored" to education or, at least, too little highly professional quality software.
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    Errh yes about Murdoch pushing "targeted and tailored software" , Harry. But see also: "News Corp moved into the $500bn (£310bn) US education sector in late 2010, paying about $360m in cash for 90% of technology company Wireless Generation, which provides mobile and web software to enable teachers to use data to assess student progress and deliver personalised learning." So he is doing at software level what Microsoft etc were doing at hardware - and at times software - level: promoting his wares in a very juicy market. We've had "targeted and tailored to education" software for decades, now: LMSs, addons to office suites, etc. Some good, some bad. The problem with software that is targeted and tailored to education is that it is a) often boring; b) perforce based on an abstract general idea of education; c) often remote from what gets used outside school. Would it not be better to train teachers in adapting whatever software is generally available, be it desktop or on the cloud, to fit their and their specific students' needs?
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    My point is simply that Murdoch gets it. His motives don't have to be pure for us all to benefit from the light he's shining on educational technology. Regarding the software, your points are well-taken. However, one extra qualification must be added. The software must be "good." That means it must avoid the problems you list.
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    "Would it not be better to train teachers in adapting whatever software is generally available, be it desktop or on the cloud, to fit their and their specific students' needs?' I disagree with this analysis. Software not created for educational purposes will only adapt so far. It is, for example, word processing substituting for paper and pencil. That's worthy of doing but really makes no difference in instruction. When software is created specifically for learning, it can reach much more deeply into the learning processes. It's not just peripheral but central to learning. You can adapt lots of software to education in lots of ways, and I've read of many very clever adaptations. Almost all could be done without the use of a computer, albeit somewhat less efficiently but nonetheless effectively. I read Murdoch's call, which echoes something I've been saying for many years, as meaning that we have to build software that answers the necessities of learning. We don't have much today.
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    Taking up your example of word processing as substitute for pen and pencil , Harry: true, and that's what I retorted in the late 1990's to a digitalophobe academic, when we met about the Italian translation of one of his books, and he boasted of having got a letter from a publisher saying he was their last author to deliver typescripts on paper and not as a digital file. I pointed out that cut and paste, copy and paste (the things he particularly hated the ease of in digital media) existed in the real world looooooong before computers, let alone PCs, let alone the Web. And yet... in 2007 I was asked to set up at very short notice an intensive preliminary French workshop for participants in a master course in intercultural studies: though in Lugano, the course was to be in French and English. I asked for access to the Moodle for the course, to store course materials there etc. The organizers refused: "The Moodle will only be explained to the students in the first week of the course proper". The idea that graduate students needed to have a Moodle explained to them in 2007 seemed peregrine, but rather than arguing, I set up a for-free wiki instead. At our first meeting, the students asked why we weren't using the Moodle, I repeated the official explanation, they laughed and got the hang of the wiki immediately. Then, for reading comprehension, they chose one of the assigned texts for the course: a longish book chapter they had received by e-mail as a grayish PDF based on a low-resolution scan, based on a reduced photocopy to make 2 pages fit on an A4 sheet: i.e. with no margin to take notes on. So we printed the PDF, separated the pages with scissors, pasted the separate pages with glue sticks on new A4 sheets, to get wider margins to write in. And then we made a wiki page for it, copied in it the subheadings, between which the students, added the notes they were taking, working in groups on the new paper version. Result: http://micusif.wikispaces.com/Vinsonneau
Bonnie Sutton

A Perfect Storm Hits Public Schools - 1 views

By Anthony Cody on February 22, 2012 11:35 AM http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/02/a_perfect_storm_hits_public_sc.html Guest post by Steven Sellers Lapham. Note: Steven Sel...

Department of Duncan ESEA NCLB education reform standardized tests teacher evaluation

started by Bonnie Sutton on 23 Feb 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

NAS , Board On Science Education - 2 views

Board on Science Education http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/ The Board on Science Education (BOSE) is a standing board within the Center for Education which is part of th...

Ready Set Science Taking to School Informal Education Free resource books on line

started by Bonnie Sutton on 30 Jun 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Action in a Shared World - 1 views

Action in a Shared World http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=15739 by Geoffrey Hinchliffe - 2010 Background/Context: The background of the article is the continued interest in ...

Education as a part of the shared world should extend capabiliry for action

started by Bonnie Sutton on 21 Oct 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Microsoft Wins TEACH Campaign from the Education Dept - 0 views

Microsoft wins TEACH campaign from Education Dept By Valerie Strauss http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/microsoft-wins-teach-campaign-from-education-dept/2011/11/13/gIQA5t5bMN_bl...

Microsoft education department teach doe

started by Bonnie Sutton on 15 Nov 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Finland and Shanghai.. a reminder post especially in the light of the NYTIMES article o... - 0 views

The Real Lessons of PISA By Diane Ravitch on December 14, 2010 9:13 AM Dear Deborah, When the results of the latest international assessment-the Program for International Student Assessment, or P...

Pisa sputnik moment achievement gap Shanghai Finland

started by Bonnie Sutton on 03 Jan 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Jamming the System: Standardized Tests, Automated Grading and the Future of Writing - 2 views

View slide show on original site. | View on Flickr on original site. Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/jamming-the-system-standardized-t...

Ja the System: Standardized Tests Automated Grading Future of Writing robotic evaluation

started by Bonnie Sutton on 29 Apr 12 no follow-up yet
Claude Almansi

Open Culture - 1 views

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    "The best free cultural & educational media on the web Essentials Free Courses Free Audio Books Free Movies Free Textbooks Free Language Lessons Great Science Videos Smart YouTube Channels Intelligent Video Sites Life Changing Books Get our Daily Email Our Free iPhone App Archive About Us"
Bonnie Sutton

The ten most popular eSN stories of the year - 2 views

The ten most popular eSN stories of the year Here are the most popular eSchool News stories of 2011. Recently, we published our editors' picks for the 10 most significant ed-tech stories of 2011...

ESN ten most popular stories of the year ipad apps myhs about teaching use You Tube at school

started by Bonnie Sutton on 03 Jan 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

How real school reform should look (or explaining water to a fish) - 1 views

How real school reform should look (or explaining water to a fish) By Valerie Strauss http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-real-school-reform-should-look-or-explaining-wat...

school reform not a standard body of knowledge political paralysis education change

started by Bonnie Sutton on 06 Feb 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Broadband Adoption Key To Jobs and Education Connect To Compete - 1 views

Connect To Compete Overview http://www.ednetinsight.com/news-alerts/featured-news/broadband-adoption-key-to-jobs-and-education.html Washington, DC - Last week, Chairman Genachowski unveiled his pr...

connect to Compete Genachowski Pew Charitable Trust national effort address the digital divide

started by Bonnie Sutton on 21 Oct 11 no follow-up yet
Claude Almansi

U. of Illinois at Springfield Offers New 'Massive Open Online Course' - Wired Campus - ... - 1 views

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    "June 21, 2011, 6:52 pm By Marc Parry "What happens when you invite the whole world to join an online class? As The Chronicle reported last year, a growing number of educators are giving that idea a try by offering free "massive open online courses," or MOOC's, to anyone who wants to learn. Today, that experimental idea gained some more traction in mainstream higher education. The University of Illinois at Springfield announced a new not-for-credit MOOC devoted to examining the state of online education and where e-learning is heading. Nearly 500 people from two dozen countries have registered so far, with 1,000 expected to sign up by the time the course begins next Monday. (...) Not enough MOOC for you? Stay tuned. Starting in September, another group will organize what the MOOC pioneer George Siemens calls the "Mother of all MOOCs." In a blog post Monday, Mr. Siemens welcomed the growing interest from traditional universities. And he countered the more skeptical take offered by another open-education leader, David Wiley, who wrote recently that "MOOCs and their like are not the answer to higher-education's problems." (...)"
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