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Bonnie Sutton

The Value of Teachers - 1 views

The Value of Teachers By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: January 11, 2012 Suppose your child is about to enter the fourth grade and has been assigned to an excellent teacher. Then the teac...

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

Digital Learning Day - 1 views

On Wednesday, February 1, 2012, thirty-seven states, 10,000 teachers, and more than 1.5 million students will participate in the first-ever national Digital Learning Day, a national awareness campa...

National event digital learning day awareness campaign

started by Bonnie Sutton on 30 Jan 12 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

Google Plus: Is This the Social Tool Schools Have Been Waiting For? - 1 views

By Audrey Watters / July 2, 2011 12:30 PM / 19 Comments Hacker News Share There seem to be three forces at play when it comes to education and social media. The first is a lack of force, quite fr...

Google+ Picasa Circles Hanging out collaborative tools. blended Learning

started by Bonnie Sutton on 04 Jul 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

U.S. Report Sees Perils to America's Tech Future - 1 views

U.S. Report Sees Perils to America's Tech Future In report, Commerce Department looks at competitive threats and internal weaknesses in new report http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/92231...

America's tech future innovation advanced technology produces STEM

started by Bonnie Sutton on 09 Jan 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Education and the income gap: Darling-Hammond - 1 views

Education and the income gap: Darling-Hammond http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/education-and-the-income-gap-darling-hammond/2012/04/26/gIQAHn0LkT_blog.html By Valerie Strau...

answer sheet inequality :; Education the income gap: Darling-Hammond

started by Bonnie Sutton on 27 Apr 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Civil RIghts- CRP Statement on New Policy Guidance from Departments of Education and Ju... - 0 views

December 2, 2011 Today, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice have issued long-awaited policy guidance to K-12 schools and colleges and universities across the U.S., about the ways in whi...

Dept of Justice and Education civil rights

started by Bonnie Sutton on 03 Dec 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Diane Ravitch Calls Herself A Voice For Teachers, In A Cruel Reform Movement - 3 views

Posted: 01/25/2012 2012 Professor Diane Ravitch is a big voice in education policy and a huge critic of No Child Left Behind. Yet, as former Assistant Secretary of Education under Preside...

Education Teachers Diane Ravitch Teach For America Career And Technical College Degree Dropouts George h. w. Bush Interns No Child Left Behind Schools Vocational News

started by Bonnie Sutton on 28 Jan 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Ravitch: What Scrooge might think of modern school reform - 4 views

Ravitch: What Scrooge might think of modern school reform By Valerie Strauss This was written by education historian Diane Ravitch for her Bridging Differences blog, which she co-authors with Debor...

Diane Ravitch Scrooge education and poverty school reform

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

he Promise and Limitations of New Technologies in Spreading Democracy - 1 views

http://newamerica.net/events/2011/ignite_or_quash_revolution The Promise and Limitations of New Technologies in Spreading Democracy Do the Internet and social media empower Big Brother or indivi...

media promises and limitations of social level playing fields New American Foundation Arab spring

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

For At-Risk Youth, is Learning Digital Media a Luxury? - 1 views

July 22, 2011 | 2:20 PM | By Tina Barseghian DIGITAL DIVIDE For At-Risk Youth, is Learning Digital Media a Luxury? FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, Research, Tech Tools, digital media, mobi...

Culture Learning Methods Research Tech Tools digital media mobile-learning

started by Bonnie Sutton on 23 Jul 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Education Technology Is An Enabler, Not A Magic Wand - 1 views

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/09/education-technology-is-an-enabler-not-a-magic-wand/ Education Technology Is An Enabler, Not A Magic Wand by K. WALSH on SEPTEMBER 7, 2011 NY Times Article Cal...

enabling education value of tools in technology

started by Bonnie Sutton on 08 Sep 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

New Ideas to Advance STEM Education in the US - 1 views

Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank unveiled findings from the Economics and Statistics Administration's (ESA) third and final report on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jo...

Education Technology Innovation Competitiveness U.S. Economic Growth

Bonnie Sutton

Why We're Building a Civic Commons - And How You Can Be Part of It - 1 views

ttp://civiccommons.org/2011/06/building-a-civic-commons/ Why We're Building a Civic Commons - And How You Can Be Part of It | By Andrew McLaughlin Walk down any major street in any ci...

started by Bonnie Sutton on 09 Jul 11 no follow-up yet
Claude Almansi

Playing with Reality at the Learning and Entertainment Evolution Forum - ProfHacker - T... - 0 views

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    June 21, 2011, 8:00 am By Prof. Hacker Lewis Carroll's logic game[This is a guest post by Anastasia Salter, Assistant Professor at the University of Baltimore in the school of Information Arts and Technologies. Her academic work focuses on storytelling in new media; she also writes the Future Fragments column for CinCity. Follow her on Twitter at AnaSalter.--@jbj] "...With that said, perhaps the most important takeaway from LEEF is that it's not all about expensive toys. Learning games don't have to be hi-tech to be effective. There's a lot to be learned from Space Vikings, the conference's ARG-that's alternate reality game, not its augmented reality cousin. Unlike augmented reality, which requires technology to mediate an environment, alternate reality is a playful imposition of story onto a physical space. In Space Vikings, a number of us dedicated conference attendees were drawn into a mission to save our tribes from a "pedagogical wasteland." How did we accomplish this feat? By hunting down "anomalies"-read masking tape clues, QR codes and posters-with answers to questions to submit in a digital educational games theory scavenger hunt. This is just one example of a conference ARG, and designers were at LEEF to report on lessons learned from others like DevLearn's Zombie Apocalypse. (For more ideas on educational uses of Alternate Reality, check out Think Transmedia.) These same ideas can scale and transform to a number of settings. For example, Melissa Peterson's Elmwood Park Zoo ARG is currently a project conducted with paper (though imagined for smartphones), and it's already doubling the engagement time of visitors to the local zoo. And on the other side, games like the Giskin Anomaly in Balboa Park are adding new layers of narrative to a popular and culturally rich tourist destination. And these games don't have to be location dependent. Case studies like the Radford Outdoor ARG Outbreak, a social inquiry game that puts st
Bonnie Sutton

The Years Worst Tech Trends.. - 1 views

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/12/the_year_s_worst_tech_trend_complexity_.html 011 Was a Terrible Year for Tech All our devices got more complicated. And they won't get si...

complexity Terrible year for tech ecosystem devices and services transitional

started by Bonnie Sutton on 01 Jan 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

SOPA & citizenship in a digital age - 1 views

Kid-Tech News for Parents http://www.netfamilynews.org/?p=31155> You could call Internet users "citizen lobbyists." This week, in a post-Arab Spring sign of how participatory media - and its p...

net family news

started by Bonnie Sutton on 20 Jan 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

The Physics of Animation - 4 views

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/physicsanimation.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 Miles O'Brien, Science Nation Correspondent Ann Kellan, Science Nation Producer The best animators k...

started by Bonnie Sutton on 13 Jun 11 no follow-up yet
Claude Almansi

The Power of Educational Technology: New York Times edtech article fails the test! - 1 views

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    Liz B. Davis 5:22 "Titled, In Classroom of the Future, Stagnant Scores , the article describes a school in Arizona where, despite a huge investment in technology, there hasn't been an increase in test scores. The article is based on one school in one town in Arizona, hardly a statistically significant sample. Larry Cuban, an outspoken critic of technology in schools since the early 1990s, is quoted multiple times. Not one of the many experts in the field of educational technology, whom we know and love, was interviewed (or at least quoted) in the article. The only reason given for the failure of technology is a lack of increase in test scores in a district that already had high test scores. Finally, there was no test comparing the technology skills of students in this school to any other school in the state. "
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    About the same NYT article by Matt Richtel, a shorter and later version of which Jim Shimabukuro reviewed in http://etcjournal.com/2011/09/05/a-lesson-from-the-kyrene-school-district-technology-alone-is-not-the-answer/
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