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Chris McEnroe

Technology a Top Priority in District 196 Schools - Rosemount, MN Patch - 0 views

  • hopefully
  • engagement
  • engaged
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  • y more engaged,” said Heier. “The engagement itself, hopefully, will increase student performance.” Funding for these undertakings comes from a variety of sources, said Jeff Solomon, director of finance and operations for the district. Until recently, one source was a financial pool provided to schools nationwide by the Microsoft corporation as the result of a lawsuit served as a revenue source. However, those funds are now drying up after several years of use. The district also receives $1.4 million per year from the capital projects levy, all of which is intended for technology-related purchases. The 10-year levy was voted into effect in 2004. Capital funds are another source of technology funding. These monies, which are issued annually, are provided by state aid and by local property taxes. The total capital funds budget is $10 million per year. However, only $140,000 is designated for administrative technology; another $1.2 million is also allocated to specific schools, where the revenue is often used to fund technology. Currently, the district’s primary technological priority is building a stronger, more consistent wireless connection, said Heier. This project is still in the early stages. The district is working with a consulting firm to design a network that will allow for further expansion. Heier said that in the future, the district would like to create an environment where students can bring their own devices to school, and where schools provide students with devices, such as laptops and tablets. The district will begin building the network in either summer or fall of 2012. Heier was unable to estimate an end date for the project, but said the district hopes to establish the network within two years. The wireless project is estimated to cost between $500,000 and $750,000, according to Heier. Funding for the network is currently being sourced from the capital project levy. At present, levy funds will not be available until after 2014-2015. However, the levy may be renewed through a community vote in 2014. Either way, it appears that high-tech efforts will continue to be a priority for District 196 in the foreseeable future. “It’s our world now,” said Berenz. “We don’t have the choice to not incorporate technology.” Related Topics: Capital Funds Project, Capital Revenue, District 196, Education, Jeff solomon, Rosemount-Apple Valley- Eagan School District, Superintendent Jane Berenz, Technology in classes, and classroom technology What do you think of technology in classrooms? Tell us in the comments. Email me updates about this story. [["validates_email_format_of",{"message":"Enter a valid email address e.g. janedoe@aol.com."}]] Website: Thanks. We'll email you the next time we update this story.  Email  Print Follow comments  Submit tip   Comment Leave a comment [["validates_presence_of",{"message":"Hey, you forgot to let us know how you feel \u2014 please enter a comment."}],["validates_length_of",{"too_long":"Easy there, Tolstoy. Your comment cannot exceed 1500 characters.","maximum":1500,"allow_blank":true}]]comm
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    Spending money with the hope that learning comes from assumed engagement.
Jerald Cole

Grading and Commenting | University Writing Center - 0 views

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    Diedrich on grading.
Malik Hussain

Jeremy Bailenson, Stanford: Virtual Self - Avatars can affect how you are in the real w... - 0 views

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    In context of Professor Dede's comment from last class about the "Proteus Effect"...some punchlines from Professor Jeremy Bailenson about the power avatars can exert on their creators.
Jackie Iger

James Gee: What Do Video Games Have to Do with Project-Based Learning? | Edutopia - 0 views

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    Gee comments on video games and project-based learning.
Tom Keffer

College Costs Are Rising Amid a Prestige Chase - NYTimes.com - 0 views

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    Discussion of productivity in university education, and Obama's comment on controlling tuition costs. Reference to Baumol's disease and the possible role of technology in modernizing the traditional approach.
sandra jacobo

How Are Happiness and Learning Connected? - 1 views

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    There are some interesting comments regarding who should be happy first, the teacher or the student.
Emily Watson

RSA on empathy - 0 views

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    In light of Chris' closing comments today...
sandra jacobo

Music and the Spirit of Schools | Edutopia - 1 views

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    I agree that some students may be more musically inclined but will integrating music into all aspects of the curriculum, as the article suggests, really help students learn?
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    Thanks for sharing Sandra. I think it depends on how well the teacher designs the activity. It also depends on how the music is used. For example, music in a game is really important, but it's in the background. So the player doesn't really pay attention to it, until it's turned off. I think music can really help us learn, but it depends on the context in which it's used.
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    Thanks for this link, Matthew, and for the comment on it, Sandra! I think that music is a great avenue for learning. From personal experience, I seem to study better and with more focus and future recollection when music is playing in the background. It would be great to see if music truly does have a connection with the acquisition and recollection of knowledge.
Chris McEnroe

Flipping the Classroom Requires More Than Video | GeekDad | Wired.com - 0 views

  • What Khan Academy is not, though, is a panacea for education. Khan’s timing — when digital media consumption is high and devices like iPads are widely popular (50 million units sold, through 2011) — helped mainstream the use of video for educational material.
  • schools line up to try to capture a cost-effective genie in a bottle
  • success with a flipped class is a combination of understanding the pedagogical goals and using the technology and method to support them.
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  • making connections with learners and differentiating your instruction
  • but centers around the negative impact Khan may have on innovation. The Khan style of teaching is the same step-by-step process that students have seen for generations:
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    Some very interesting deliberation on the meaning of the Khan phenomenon. I found some resonance with Prof. Dede's comments on the radio.
Lin Pang

DIY.org is an Online Refrigerator for Kids' Artwork - 1 views

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    A good site that encourages kids to upload their artworks. They are encouraged by rewards. Parents can monitor their kids' portfolio using their dashboard and give comments. Instruction is kept simple on the site.
Leslie Lieman

YouTube Finds a Way Off Schools' Banned List - 2 views

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    Google started YouTube for Schools in December. Now schools can choose the videos they want, "scrubbed of all comments and linked only to other related educational videos."
Leslie Lieman

Blogging as Therapy for Teenagers - Studied - 1 views

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    Updating diary research to blogging. It seems blogging can be therapeutic for teens. More girls in the study than boys. Comments from readers seems to put some difficulties into perspective.
Stephanie Fitzgerald

Why gaming in the classroom may soon be the norm | Firstpost - 5 views

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    An interesting post on games in education that links to many examples for learning to code and mentions some other online educational environments that use gamification.
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    Hi Stephanie - This article also seems to highlight the extrinsic rewards of points and badges -- calling it "gamification." And given our last conversation in class, I wonder if all the points and badges will kill the intrinsic desire to play the games. Interestingly, there was a comment with a link to another article http://www.hideandseek.net/2010/10/06/cant-play-wont-play/ where the writer notes that some games just use "pointification," and that the best games are the ones that have rich cognitive, emotional and social aspects, with choice and skill... but not dependent on points/badges. In light of our "motivation" conversations, it will be interesting to watch how gaming in the classroom plays out if they are largely point/badges driven.
Kasthuri Gopalaratnam

Education Week: Study Finds Timing of Student Rewards Key to Effectiveness - 3 views

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    Interesting study on rewards and motivation: Some excerpts - Rewards worked much better if they were given to students before the test, not after. Researchers found students worked significantly harder to keep what they had than they did to win something new. But none of the incentives worked at any age if students knew they wouldn't get the reward for a month. "All motivating power of the incentives vanishes when rewards are handed out with a delay," the researchers concluded. "Especially among children, the difference between right now and tomorrow is a big difference," Ms. Sadoff said. "For all students it's important that the reward be immediate." That impatience creates a massive problem for incentive programs based on state test results, which can often take months to turn around.
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    Thanks for this Kasthuri! This gives additional strength to the immediacy of digital rewards and students having access to their own "stats" (both potentially available in games and simulations). The thought of actual green-back monetary rewards for study/learning gives me the heebie-jeebies. I appreciated Alexandra M. Usher's comment, that "it's really important to reward inputs, not outputs [and] to reward behavior that kids can control, rather than just telling them to get better grades."
Chris McEnroe

Broken STEM: A failure to teach Science, Technology, Engineering and Math | The Connect... - 3 views

  • “It suddenly occurred to me that every idea I had memorized or learned or thought I understood in a textbook was actually the result of scientific investigation,
  • “What was missing that it took me so long?”
  • She thinks science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields aren’t taught the right way in the United States
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  • “the U.S. tends to have a curriculum that repeats the same topics over and over
  • Data show that American students actually do well in math and science in the early years (http://nces.ed.gov/timss/results07_math07.asp). By 12th grade, however, their performance has plummeted (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind04/c1/fig01-08.htm).
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    Thanks for sharing this, Chris. It's both interesting and relevant to my project for this course. A comment at the bottom suggested that really the companies need to change their unrealistic minimum criteria for job candidates. I've heard that argument before, and sometimes I do wonder when I see complaints from companies looking only for people with 5+ years of STEM work experience railing on the state of STEM education. What do you think?
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    Thanks for sharing Chris! I can totally relate to this. I remember having to sit through those "weed out" intro biology and chemistry courses in undergrad. They were the antithesis of motivating but I pushed through because I knew without them I couldn't do the "cool science" I wanted to. I remember at the time thinking these courses were weeding out people who were entertaining the idea of a STEM career but just didn't want to put up with the cut throat nature of these courses. It seemed to me the classes were more concerned about weeding out people than by providing an environment that really fostered learning.
Kelsey Voigt

The Moron Test (or a version of it) - 2 views

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    Comments in class sparked me to look this up...it's pretty good, though not the same as what was described. You can also get a different version of the test as an iPhone app...
Parisa Rouhani

Students to face cyberbullying charges - SciTechBlog - CNN.com Blogs - 0 views

  • threatening comments on a fellow student's Web site can be charged with hate crimes and defamation.
  • students began posting threatening remarks
  • The appellate court determined that the cyberbullying was not free speech and the students were not protected by First Amendment rights
Soomi Hong

Start-up hopes to bridge real, virtual worlds | Deep Tech - CNET News - 0 views

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    A start-up trying to bring some real world flavor to virtual worlds on the net plans to publicly launch an online real m it calls Project X now.
Soomi Hong

A look at the technology culture divide | eSchoolNews.com - 1 views

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    "While educators may see students every day, they do not necessarily understand their students' habits, expectations, or learning preferences-this has resulted in a technology cultural divide."
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