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Bonnie Sutton

Twitter Hashtags for Educators http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/... - 2 views

Electronic Teaming for Singletons in a PLC One of the questions that I'm asked all the time as an advocate for both professional learning communities and teaching with technology is, "How can ...

Twitter Hastags for Educators professional development using social networking

started by Bonnie Sutton on 22 Jun 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

'Mr. President, public education in the U.S. is on the wrong track' - 1 views

By Valerie Strauss This is the text of an open letter written to President Obama by Mary Broderick, president of the Arlington, Va.,-based National Schools Boards Association, a not-for-profit or...

educarion Public reform innovation and creativity testing no child left behind

started by Bonnie Sutton on 24 Apr 12 no follow-up yet
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

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

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

Making Schools Work - 1 views

OPINION By DAVID L. KIRP Making Schools Work http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/integration-worked-why-have-we-rejected-it.html?ref=education AMID the ceaseless and cac...

Segregation integration transforming schools Brown vs Board of education

started by Bonnie Sutton on 23 May 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

National Cyber Security Alliance Announces New Agreement with the U.S. Department of Ed... - 0 views

National Cyber Security Alliance Announces New Agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, NIST and National Cybersecurity Education Council to Promote Formal Cyber Security Education Programs...

Stay Safe on Line . the www.staysafeonline.org. cybersecurity

started by Bonnie Sutton on 28 Oct 11 no follow-up yet
Claude Almansi

It's not about tools. It's about change. « Connectivism - 0 views

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    [George Siemens] June 12th, 2007 "...It's the change underlying these tools that I'm trying to emphasize. Forget blogs…think open dialogue. Forget wikis…think collaboration. Forget podcasts…think democracy of voice. Forget RSS/aggregation…think personal networks. Forget any of the tools…and think instead of the fundamental restructuring of how knowledge is created, disseminated, shared, and validated. But to create real change, we need to move our conversation beyond simply the tools and our jargon. Parents understand the importance of preparing their children for tomorrow's world. They might not understand RSS, mashups, and blogs. Society understands the importance of a skilled workforce, of critical and creative thinkers. They may not understand wikis, podcasts, or user-created video or collaboratively written software. Unfortunately, where our aim should be about change, our sights are set on tools. And we wonder why we're not hitting the mark we desire. Perhaps our vision for change is still unsettled. What would success look like if we achieved it? What would classrooms look like? How would learning occur? We require a vision for change. It's reflected occasionally in classroom 2.0 or enterprise 2.0 projects. But the tool, not change centric, theme still arises. We may think we are talking about change, but our audience hears hype and complex jargon. What is your vision for change?"
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    NB: I am tagging this post by George Siemens "Digital Promise" though it was published in 2007, because what he wrote then is very pertinent to the 2011 Digital Promise initiative.
Bonnie Sutton

Cell Phones - Time to Lift the Ban on Mobiles in the School Setting? by Thomas - 5 views

Cell Phones - Time to Lift the Ban on Mobiles in the School Setting? by Thomas Needless to say, the general consensus regarding cell phones and schools is that the two simply do not mix. However, ...

use of cell phones in school

started by Bonnie Sutton on 25 Oct 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Social Media is Transforming the World - 0 views

http://mediatapper.com/social-media-typewriters-and-fax-machines-lead-the-revolt-against-oppression/ Social media is transforming the world! This is especially true in the Middle East where platf...

social media platforms Twitter YouTube google plus facebook

started by Bonnie Sutton on 26 Dec 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

When "New" Gets Old: Redefining Approaches to Digital Literacy and Citizenship - 1 views

Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/when-new-gets-old-redefining-approaches-to-digital-literacy-and-citizenship/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=emai...

Internet digital literacy tutorial Canada ethical agents in a world. teaching tweeting

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

The Ironies of Teacher Appreciation Week - 1 views

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-ironies-of-teacher-appreciation-week/2012/05/09/gIQAjkjTEU_blog.html The ironies of Teacher Appreciation Week By Valerie Strauss Last Fri...

teacher appreciation dismissal ironic

started by Bonnie Sutton on 10 May 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Why Johnny Can't Program - 1 views

Why Johnny can't program -- and how that can change Today's schools are actually turning kids away from computer science, and it will take innovative programs to reverse the trend By Neil McAll...

middle school children's programming agent sheets computer science computing

started by Bonnie Sutton on 05 Aug 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Ignore the Potential of Mobile Learning, Risk Widening the Digital Divide - 2 views

July 22, 2011 | 11:48 AM | By Tina Barseghian DIGITAL DIVIDE FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, digital media, digital-divide, mobile-learning http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/07/ignore-the-...

Learning Methods digital media digital-divide mobile-learning

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

How teachers Facebook & tweet for students - 2 views

Net Family News Anne Collier Facebook and Twitter are very different but social utilities just the same, so there are about as many ways teachers use them as there are teachers. And their creativi...

twitter social media use utilities groups individualizing the of Facebook

started by Bonnie Sutton on 10 Jun 11 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

Ten Education Predictions for 2012 Answer Sheet - 1 views

10 education predictions for 2012 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/10-education-predictions-for-2012/2011/12/29/gIQAB2PbPP_blog.html By Valerie Strauss This was written by La...

Prognostications prediction teacher ratings social emotional learning peer assistance and review

started by Bonnie Sutton on 01 Jan 12 no follow-up yet
Bonnie Sutton

A state that just says 'no' to charters, other reforms - 1 views

A state that just says 'no' to charters, other reforms By Valerie Strauss This was written by Melissa Westbrook, a public education activist and co-writer of the Seattle Schools Community Forum...

charters other reforms Washington State innovation support

started by Bonnie Sutton on 04 May 12 no follow-up yet
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