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anonymous

Education Week: Filtering Fixes - 0 views

www.edweek.org/...02filter_ep.h29.html

shared by anonymous on 15 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Instead of blocking the many exit ramps and side routes on the information superhighway, they have decided that educating students and teachers on how to navigate the Internet’s vast resources responsibly, safely, and productively—and setting clear rules and expectations for doing so—is the best way to head off online collisions.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 15 Sep 09
       
      This is nothing new, but it seems this is one of the VERY few districts that puts its filter where its mouth is.
  • “We are known in our district for technology, so I don’t see how you can teach kids 21st-century values if you’re not teaching them digital citizenship and appropriate ways of sharing and using everything that’s available on the Web,” said Shawn Nutting, the technology director for the Trussville district. “How can you, in 2009, not use the Internet for everything? It blows me away that all these schools block things out” that are valuable.
  • While schools are required by federal and state laws to block pornography and other content that poses a danger to minors, Internet-filtering software often prevents students from accessing information on legitimate topics that tend to get caught in the censoring process: think breast cancer, sexuality, or even innocuous keywords that sound like blocked terms. One teacher who commented on one of Mr. Fryer’s blog posts, for example, complained that a search for biographical information on a person named Thacker was caught by his school’s Internet filter because the prohibited term “hacker” is included within the spelling of the word.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • The K-2 school provides e-mail addresses to each of its 880 students and maintains accounts on the Facebook and Twitter networking sites. Children can also interact with peers in other schools and across the country through protected wiki spaces and blogs the school has set up.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 15 Sep 09
       
      We find it hard to even imagine this, don't we?
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 15 Sep 09
       
      the entire approach to filtering is based on this sentence, isn't it?
  • “Rather than saying this is a scary tool and something bad could happen, instead we believe it’s an incredible tool that connects you with the entire world out there. ... [L]et’s show you the best way to use it.”
  • As Trussville students move through the grades and encounter more-complex educational content and expectations, their Internet access is incrementally expanded.
  • In 2001, the Children’s Internet Protection Act instituted new requirements for schools to establish policies and safeguards for Internet use as a condition of receiving federal E-rate funding. Many districts have responded by restricting any potentially troublesome sites. But many educators and media specialists complain that the filters are set too broadly and cannot discriminate between good and bad content. Drawing the line between what material is acceptable and what’s not is a local decision that has to take into account each district’s comfort level with using Internet content
  • The American Civil Liberties Union sued Tennesee’s Knox County and Nashville school districts on behalf of several students and a school librarian for blocking Internet sites related to gay and lesbian issues. While the districts’ filtering software prohibited students from accessing sites that provided information and resources on the subject, it did not block sites run by organizations that promoted the controversial view that homosexuals can be “rehabilitated” and become heterosexuals. Last month, a federal court dismissed the lawsuit after school officials agreed to unblock the sites.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 15 Sep 09
       
      Hmmm - a lawsuit? And the Assistant Sec of Education didn't understand what I meant when I suggested that lawsuits control decisions and guide curriculum.
  • Students are using personal technology tools more readily to study subject matter, collaborate with classmates, and complete assignments than they were several years ago, but they are generally asked to “power down” at school and abandon the electronic resources they rely on for learning outside of class, the survey found. Administrators generally cite safety issues and concerns that students will misuse such tools to dawdle, cheat, or view inappropriate content in school as reasons for not offering more open online access to students. ("Students See Schools Inhibiting Their Use of New Technologies,", April 1, 2009.)
  • A report commissioned by the NSBA found that social networking can be beneficial to students, and urged school board members to “find ways to harness the educational value” of so-called Web 2.0 tools, such as setting up chat rooms or online journals that allow students to collaborate on their classwork. The 2007 report also told school boards to re-evaluate policies that ban or tightly restrict the use of the Internet or social-networking sites.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 15 Sep 09
       
      YES!! What do you think?
  • Federal Requirements for Schools on Internet Safety The Children’s Internet Protection Act, or CIPA, is a federal law intended to block access to offensive Web content on school and library computers. Under CIPA, schools and libraries that receive funding through the federal E-rate program for Internet access must: • Have an Internet-safety policy and technology-protection measures in place. The policy must include measures to block or filter Internet access to obscene photos, child pornography, and other images that can be harmful to minors; • Educate minors about appropriate and inappropriate online behavior, including activities like cyberbullying and social networking; • Adopt and enforce a policy to monitor online activities of minors; and • Adopt and implement policies related to Internet use by minors that address access to inappropriate online materials, student safety and privacy issues, and the hacking of unauthorized sites. Source: Federal Communications Commission
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 15 Sep 09
       
      This is the Act that schools cite when giving reasons for blocking what they do. Can you justify it from this? Granted, it's not the coplete law, but they sure do use this to justify everything.
  • “We believe that you can’t have goals about kids’ collaborating globally and then block their ability to do that,” said Becky Fisher, the Virginia district’s technology coordinator.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 15 Sep 09
       
      Hear! Hear!
mary heuer

Blogging helps encourage teen writing | Top News | eSchoolNews.com - 9 views

www.eschoolnews.com/...g-helps-encourage-teen-writing

shared by mary heuer on 07 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Blogging is helping many teens become more prolific writers.
    • Michelle Krill
      Michelle Krill on 09 Jul 10
       
      Wow! What a statement!
    • janae kauffman
      janae kauffman on 09 Jul 10
       
      I know!
  • it and revise their writing on a computer, the report says. Nearly six in 10 students (57 percent) say they edit and revise more frequently when they write using a computer. Teens who use a computer in their non-school writing believe computers have a greater impact on the amount of writing they produce than on the overall quality of their writing. Yet, there is a great deal of ambiguity with respect to the impact of computers in each of these areas. Among teens who use computers in their non-school writing, four in 10 say computers help them do more writing, and a similar number believe they would write the same amount whether they used computers or not. In comparison, only three in 10 teens who write on computers for non-school purposes at least occasionally believe computers help them do better writing–and twice as many (63 percent) say computers make no difference in the quality of their writing. Parents are more likely than teens to believe that internet-based writing (such as eMail and instant messaging) affects writing skills overall, though both groups are split on whether electronic communications help or hurt. Nonetheless, 73 percent of teens and 40 percent of parents believe internet writing makes no difference either way. Most students (82 percent) believe that additional instruction and focus on writing in school would help improve their writing even further–and more than three-quarters of those surveyed (78 percent) think it would help their writing if their teachers used computer-based writing tools such as games, multimedia, or writing software programs or web sites during class. The telephone-based survey of 700 U.S. residents ages 12 to 17 and their parents was conducted last year from Sept. 19 to Nov. 16 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. Link: "Writing, Technology, and Teens" survey var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_config.linkname="Blogging helps encourage teen writing"; a2a_config.linkurl="http://www.eschoolnews.com/2008/04/30/blogging-helps-encourage-teen-writing/"; Comments are closed <script language=JavaScript src="http://rotator.adjuggler.com/servlet/ajrotator/173768/0/vj?z=eschool&dim=173789&pos=6&abr=$scriptiniframe"></script><noscript><a href="http://rotator.adjuggler.com/servlet/ajrotator/173768/0/cc?z=eschool&pos=6"><img src="http://rotator.adjuggler.com/servlet/ajrotator/173768/0/vc?z=eschool&dim=173789&pos=6&abr=$imginiframe" width="300" height="250" border="0"></a></noscript> Recent Stories with Comments Kentucky offers cloud-based software to 700,000 school usersNo access for bad guysU.S. court weighs school discipline for lewd web postsParent video protesting state budget cuts goes viralEditorial: Threats to innovation <SCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1' SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N5621.125531.9553987353421/B3794502.5;abr=!ie;sz=300x250;click=;ord=996778?"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT> <A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N5621.125531.9553987353421/B3794502.5;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=300x250;ord=996778?"> <IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N5621.125531.9553987353421/B3794502.5;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=300x250;ord=996778?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 ALT="Click Here"></A> </NOSCRIPT> Educator Resource Centers Computing in the Cloud How technology can help with language instruction Communication and Collaboration for More Effective School Management Expert Blog: Security Insights Boost Student Achievement with Connected Teaching Private: Testing ERC Page Solving key IT challenges with virtualization Online Learning: One Pathway to Success Re-imagining Education One-to-one computing: The last piece of the puzzle Recent Entries Customers question tech industry’s takeover spree New rules bring online piracy fight to U.S. campuses Judge orders school newspaper to delete stories Ed-tech grant program aims to boost college readiness Lawmakers tra
  • Michelle Krill on 07 Jul 10
     
    "Survey reveals that student bloggers are more prolific and appreciate the value of writing more than their peers"
  • mary heuer on 09 Jul 10
     
    I am trying to get rid of this but cannot delete because it has been annotated by others....that's what I get for playing around ...
anonymous

Collier school district working to reduce absences among its top students : Education :... - 0 views

www.naplesnews.com/...ict-working-reduce-absences-am

absences

shared by anonymous on 06 Jul 09 - Cached
  • While the attendance rate for the district is very good, Stockman said, 26.6 percent of the Top 50 students in the district’s seven high schools have missed between 10 and 19 days of school and 6.3 percent missed 20 days or more.
  • “We have students who miss 50 days of school and graduate in the Top 50 of their class. And we know the reasons. A lot of them are working on Florida Virtual School to get (Advanced Placement) and honors credits.”
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 06 Jul 09
       
      What does this say about what goges on in school? What does it say about the hybrid model of Brick and Mortar schools and cyber schools?
  • students who have accrued 10 or more absences in a semester to the intervention team to be considered for denial of credit. Credit denial results in an “L” being placed next tot he semester grade on the student’s report card and in the student’s grade history. The grade will not be figured into the student’s grade point average.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 06 Jul 09
       
      Fair?
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Stockman said the consequences reflect the School Board’s philosophy that “the classroom experience is of unique value and it cannot be duplicated by make-up work. Student interaction and the development of ideas through discussion are lost when a student is absent.”
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 06 Jul 09
       
      Is this board simply resisting the inevitable change? Or, do you agree that the classroom experience cannot be duplicated and is essential to the education of the student? Or, is it just that the quality of the makeup work is poor?
  • anonymous on 06 Jul 09
     
    Is this a sign of things to come? What do YOU think of the idea of punishing the kids who don't come to school yet get good grades?
  • Mrs Huber on 07 Jul 09
     
    I responded about this in a message to you. You are free to share that message (comment) with the group. Didn't realize this was here until just now.OOPS! LOL
L Butler

Schools should embrace cell phones - 0 views

www.pennlive.com/...ls_should_embrace_cell_ph.html

web2.0 cellphones

shared by L Butler on 11 Oct 09 - Cached
    • L Butler
      L Butler on 11 Oct 09
       
      In my district, the bigger issue is bandwidth. We are moving towards 1 to 1 - however, the connecting to the internet is what is getting in the way. But I would agree, most high schools do not have enough computers for everyone to use.
  • most high schools in the United States do not have enough computers for all students to use at once. By allowing cell phone usage, the ability to access the Internet will become much easier and will help schools save money. Since a cell phone uses a separate network to access the Internet, wireless networks will be spared the rugged strain all school wireless networks undergo. With a less stressed wireless network, fewer repairs will need to be made, thus relieving the IT staffs at schools.
    • L Butler
      L Butler on 11 Oct 09
       
      I agree with this. My district is attempting to move towards 1 to 1 classrooms, but they have found that access to the internet is the big issue. It is easier to add computers, it is more of a challenge to increase the bandwidth. I think it could cut back on the school wireless network.
    • L Butler
      L Butler on 11 Oct 09
       
      80% have cell phones - but many of the examples that are given for how students could benefit from having cell phones would require a cell phone and a data plan. Personally, I have been unwilling to spend $120 a month to have a data plan, and I imagine many parents would feel the same way.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Many critics argue that kids will become distracted if cell phones are allowed in class. Cell phones, however, potentially create the same distraction that comes along with sitting next to a classmate.
    • L Butler
      L Butler on 11 Oct 09
       
      Great quote ... however if the teachers management style is not strong enough, the cell phones could be another reason students are off task. If they are not connected to a school network, there is no way to track to see if they are on task.
  • Homework alerts and project directions can be sent via text message
  • One of the many missions of the educational system in the United States is to prepare students for life as adults so they can be productive citizens in a vastly changing world. Technology has been around for decades and is only growing and advancing. So why are schools not informing students on how to use it safely and effectively?
  • 80 percent of high school students in the United States have cell phones.
Jeff Rothenberger

ISTE | NETS for Students 2007 - 0 views

www.iste.org/...NETS_for_Students_2007.htm

Food Classroom technology NETS 21stcenturyskills

shared by Jeff Rothenberger on 22 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:   a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. c. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures. d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 22 Jun 09
       
      Does this sound familiar? Collaboration? Which group read that in the Horizon Report?
    • Scott Brewer
      Scott Brewer on 23 Jun 09
       
      Project teams sounds like something I would love to be a part of, and my students to be a part of!
    • Mrs Huber
      Mrs Huber on 23 Jun 09
       
      @Jim- Yes, this does sound familiar. I served on a tech steering committee this spring and that is how I learned of these standards. Not sure the school board knows of them though.
    • Emma Clouser
      Emma Clouser on 23 Jun 09
       
      Seems like using diigo would help us meet these standards:)
    • Emily Reinert
      Emily Reinert on 23 Jun 09
       
      I think letter C is fascinating - until yesterday, I hadn't thought about students communicating with other students around the WORLD.
    • Mrs Huber
      Mrs Huber on 23 Jun 09
       
      Before I had this class I didn't think Distance Learning was important, but when asked if I thought the district should get a set up for our elementary school, I said yes, since why say no! I hope we get it now because I will be able to use it with the knowledge I am gaining this week. Very cool!
    • Beth Hartranft
      Beth Hartranft on 23 Jun 09
       
      thoughts for 2.b. - We need to teach more than just office products!
    • Amy Soule
      Amy Soule on 23 Jun 09
       
      Should they be allowed to text each other during class? That's communication, using one of their favorite formats!
    • Mary Richards
      Mary Richards on 23 Jun 09
       
      This is particularly apt for middle school students who are very, very social! They love working in groups and do a better job of holding each other accountable than I do!
    • Emma Clouser
      Emma Clouser on 20 Jul 09
       
      ISTE Educational Technology Standards for Students
  • a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression. c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. d. identify trends and forecast possibilities
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Students demonstrate creative thinking
  • Scott Brewer on 23 Jun 09
     
    Do YOU know that NETS-S for your students? Is ANYONE in your school addressing these?
  • ...4 more comments...
  • Mrs Huber on 23 Jun 09
     
    Do YOU know that NETS-S for your students? Is ANYONE in your school addressing these?
  • Emily Reinert on 23 Jun 09
     
    Do YOU know that NETS-S for your students? Is ANYONE in your school addressing these?
  • anonymous on 23 Jun 09
     
    Do YOU know that NETS-S for your students? Is ANYONE in your school addressing these?
  • Beth Hartranft on 23 Jun 09
     
    Do YOU know that NETS-S for your students? Is ANYONE in your school addressing these?
  • Amy Soule on 23 Jun 09
     
    Do YOU know that NETS-S for your students? Is ANYONE in your school addressing these?
  • Mary Richards on 23 Jun 09
     
    Do YOU know that NETS-S for your students? Is ANYONE in your school addressing these?
anonymous

Educational Leadership:Teaching for the 21st Century:What Would Socrates Say? - 0 views

www.ascd.org/..._Would_Socrates_Say%C2%A2.aspx

shared by anonymous on 07 Sep 09 - Cached
  • The noted philosopher once said, "I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance." My fear is that instead of knowing nothing except the fact of our own ignorance, we will know everything except the fact of our own ignorance. Google has given us the world at our fingertips, but speed and ubiquity are not the same as actually knowing something.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      What an interesting difference this turn of phrase creates, isn't it?
  • Socrates believed that we learn best by asking essential questions and testing tentative answers against reason and fact in a continual and virtuous circle of honest debate. We need to approach the contemporary knowledge explosion and the technologies propelling this new enlightenment in just that manner. Otherwise, the great knowledge and communication tsunami of the 21st century may drown us in a sea of trivia instead of lifting us up on a rising tide of possibility and promise.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      I'd love to hear your thoughts on this paragraph
  • A child born today could live into the 22nd century. It's difficult to imagine all that could transpire between now and then. One thing does seem apparent: Technical fixes to our outdated educational system are likely to be inadequate. We need to adapt to a rapidly changing world.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • Every day we are exposed to huge amounts of information, disinformation, and just plain nonsense. The ability to distinguish fact from factoid, reality from fiction, and truth from lies is not a "nice to have" but a "must have" in a world flooded with so much propaganda and spin.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      Would we not ALL agre on this? What argument can you think of that might contradict this? If this is true, then what should change?
  • For example, for many years, the dominant U.S. culture described the settling of the American West as a natural extension of manifest destiny, in which people of European descent were "destined" to occupy the lands of the indigenous people. This idea was, and for some still is, one of our most enduring and dangerous collective fabrications because it glosses over human rights and skirts the issue of responsibility. Without critical reflection, we will continually fall victim to such notions.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      I think schools talk about the Manifest destiny idea early on. It's too bad that it's not revisited when kids are older and can reflect on that idea more.
  • A second element of the 21st century mind that we must cultivate is the willingness to abandon supernatural explanations for naturally occurring events.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      What do you think?
  • The third element of the 21st century mind must be the recognition and acceptance of our shared evolutionary collective intelligence.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      The mere fact that you're reading this supports the idea of colective intelligence, doesn't it?
  • To solve the 21st century's challenges, we will need an education system that doesn't focus on memorization, but rather on promoting those metacognitive skills that enable us to monitor our own learning and make changes in our approach if we perceive that our learning is not going well.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      TONS of people say this. Yet, the state and federal governments continue to push standardized tests. The world needs problem solvers but our educational system produces kids who are either good at memorizing or who aren't good at memorizing. Agree? Disagree?
  • Metacognition is a fancy word for a higher-order learning process that most of us use every day to solve thousands of problems and challenges.
  • We are at the threshold of a worldwide revolution in learning. Just as the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the wall of conventional schooling is collapsing before our eyes. A new electronic learning environment is replacing the linear, text-bound culture of conventional schools. This will be the proving ground of the 21st century mind.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      "Mr Tech Director, tear down that (filter) wall."
  • We will cease to think of technology as something that has its own identity, but rather as an extension of our minds, in much the same way that books extend our minds without a lot of fanfare. According to Huff and Saxberg, immersive technologies—such as multitouch displays; telepresence (an immersive meeting experience that offers high video and audio clarity); 3-D environments; collaborative filtering (which can produce recommendations by comparing the similarity between your preferences and those of other people); natural language processing; intelligent software; and simulations—will transform teaching and learning by 2025.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      We're SAYING that now, but kids and teachers still lack the skills to make it a reality. Until kids have a friendly way of organizing and accessing the resoures they find (Diigo?) they cannnot be at this point. Agree? Disagree?
  • So imagine that a group of teachers and middle school students decides to tackle the question, What is justice? Young adolescents' discovery of injustice in the world is a crucial moment in their development. If adults offer only self-serving answers to this question, students can become cynical or despairing. But if adults treat the problem of injustice truthfully and openly, hope can emerge and grow strong over time. As part of their discussion, let's say that the teachers and students have cocreated a middle school earth science curriculum titled Water for the World. This curriculum would be a blend of classroom, community, and online activities. Several nongovernmental organizations—such as Waterkeeper, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Water for People—might support the curriculum, which would meet national and state standards and include lessons, activities, games, quizzes, student-created portfolios, and learning benchmarks.
  • The goal of the curriculum would be to enable students from around the world to work together to address the water crisis in a concrete way. Students might help bore a freshwater well, propose a low-cost way of preventing groundwater pollution, or develop a local water treatment technique. Students and teachers would collaborate by talking with one another through Skype and posting research findings using collaborative filtering. Students would create simulations and games and use multitouch displays to demonstrate step-by-step how their projects would proceed. A student-created Web site would include a blog; a virtual reference room; a teachers' corner; a virtual living room where learners communicate with one another in all languages through natural language processing; and 3-D images of wells being bored in Africa, Mexico, and Texas. In a classroom like this, something educationally revolutionary would happen: Students and adults would connect in a global, purposeful conversation that would make the world a better place. We would pry the Socratic dialogue from the hands of the past and lift it into the future to serve the hopes and dreams of all students everywhere.
  • There has never been a time in human history when the opportunity to create universally accessible knowledge has been more of a reality. And there has never been a time when education has meant more in terms of human survival and happiness.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      Woud you agree?
  • To start, we must overhaul and redesign the current school system. We face this great transition with both hands tied behind our collective backs if we continue to pour money, time, and effort into an outdated system of education. Mass education belongs in the era of massive armies, massive industrial complexes, and massive attempts at social control. We have lost much talent since the 19th century by enforcing stifling education routines in the name of efficiency. Current high school dropout rates clearly indicate that our standardized testing regime and outdated curriculums are wasting the potential of our youth.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      I like this. What do YOU think?
  • If we stop thinking of schools as buildings and start thinking of learning as occurring in many different places, we will free ourselves from the conventional education model that still dominates our thinking.
anonymous

Official Google Blog: Google heads to grade school: New resources for K-12 teachers and... - 0 views

googleblog.blogspot.com/...heads-to-grade-school-new.html

Google

shared by anonymous on 03 Jul 09 - Cached
  • anonymous on 03 Jul 09
     
    This is an important change! Make sure you take this to your tech person and building principal.
  • anonymous on 03 Jul 09
     
    To help address schools' email security needs, Google Message Security (GMS) will be offered free to current and new eligible primary and secondary schools globally that opt in by July of next year. GMS filters out email messaging threats, and education IT departments can customize the filtering rules and group messaging lists to suit their schools
N Butler

Detroit Schools on the Brink - WSJ.com - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...SB124813472753066949.html

bankrupt schools detroit

shared by N Butler on 22 Jul 09 - Cached
  • charter schools have siphoned off tens of thousands of students.
    • N Butler
      N Butler on 22 Jul 09
       
      I know of a school in Western Pa that was having the same problem. They decided to create their own "Cyber School" to keep money in the district. As far as I know, it has worked well.
  • only about one-quarter of students who start high school in the district graduate from it in four years,
  • Wide-scale corruption has depleted district coffers, which held a $103.6 million surplus as recently as 2002. In June, Mr. Bobb's new team of forensic accountants found DPS paychecks going to 257 "ghost" employees who have yet to be accounted for.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • they recently hired private companies to take over 17 of the district's 22 high schools. Last week, the district received $149 million in federal stimulus grants to upgrade classrooms and instruction districtwide. Only $11 million of that can be applied to the deficit, however.
Charles Black

Should Schools Allow Students to Have Cell Phones? - FamilyLobby.com - 0 views

articles.familylobby.com/w-students-to-have-cell-ph.htm

video

shared by Charles Black on 15 Aug 12 - Cached
  • Charles Black on 15 Aug 12
     
    While I believe we can all agree some students abuse having a cell phone in school, this article provides a good argument against a policy that would ban cell phones anywhere in school. I believe for safety reasons all students should be allowed to at least bring their phone to school. We cannot promote advancing technology if we ban it from our schools!
Neil Groft

Is Algebra Necessary? - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...is-algebra-necessary.html

shared by Neil Groft on 30 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Neil Groft on 30 Jul 12
     
    Is Algebra Necessary? Adam Hayes By ANDREW HACKER Published: July 28, 2012 475 Comments A TYPICAL American school day finds some six million high school students and two million college freshmen struggling with algebra. In both high school and college, all too many students are expected to fail. Why do we subject American students to this ordeal? I've found myself moving toward the strong view that we shouldn't.
anonymous

School 2.0 - Home - 0 views

etoolkit.org/etoolkit

leadership school2.0

shared by anonymous on 04 Oct 10 - Cached
  • anonymous on 04 Oct 10
     
    The School 2.0 etoolkit is designed to help schools, districts, and communities develop a common education vision and explore how that vision can be supported by technology
Lucy Chubb

We can't let educators off the hook | Dangerously Irrelevant - 2 views

dangerouslyirrelevant.org/...et-educators-off-the-hook.html

shared by Lucy Chubb on 03 Oct 10 - No Cached
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 03 Oct 10
       
      What do you think? Is ignorance of the tools of the web excusable? Should we let them off the hook?
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 03 Oct 10
       
      Oh, and read down through the comments, as well. The discussion continues there.
    • Martin Meier
      Martin Meier on 22 Oct 10
       
      "...if you're not doing what needs to be done, then you should get out of the way to make room for someone who will." This statement assumes everyone who uses digital technology "know what needs to be done." After viewing many videos during our class I believe there is a direction we should be going in, but nobody really 'knows' what needs to be done. Just like every politician and irrate blogger seems to have the answer. The "get with us or get out of the way" statments concern me the most. If a student doesn't subscribe to what we're teaching do we then shuffle them off to alternate school? No, we try something different whether it's Web 2.0 or something else. It's what we call the 'art' of teaching. Whether we're teaching students or educators, as long as we're willing to try something new, not just jump on the bandwagon, then our students will learn to adjust and be flexible also.
    • Mary Richards
      Mary Richards on 23 Oct 10
       
      Lurkers are good - if everyone is talking than no one is listening.
    • Kati Hoover
      Kati Hoover on 23 Oct 10
       
      I don't think we can let educators off the hook. I feel like some just ignore where the world is going and feel save and comfortable in what they know. Well, who isn't. We don't become better teachers, friends, parents, or people by keeping things to same. You have to change and adapt in order to be successful. We aren't just teaching students. We are preparing the future generation. Those students will become all of things we are and we know - if we don't prepare them for what their world WILL look like, what are we doing? Are we even doing our job? We must be held accountable.
    • Sandra Benedict
      Sandra Benedict on 23 Oct 10
       
      No, we should not allow colleges who train our teachers off the hook either. We need to support and train teachers in these various tools. We also need to make sure they have the hardware was well as our kids. All too often these authors think everyone including kids have access to computers/internet 24/7. Some of our teachers do not have this access in their homes.
    • Lucy Chubb
      Lucy Chubb on 23 Oct 10
       
      information shared to the faculty helps counter the "blue pill"
    • Lucy Chubb
      Lucy Chubb on 23 Oct 10
       
      That is my favorite paragraph!
    • Lauren Hummel
      Lauren Hummel on 23 Oct 10
       
      I also like this paragraph. The idea of life-long learnining has to embrace change. I understand that adapting is difficult because it requires teachers to constantly reconstruct their teaching. However, I agree that this needs to take place in order for education to effectively meet the needs of students.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • If you’re a teacher / administrator / librarian / education professor that somehow ‘doesn’t even realize [yet] that there’s a decision to be made,’ should you even be working in a school or university? Don’t our children and our school systems need and deserve someone who’s in a different place than you are?
  • It’s about our students: our children and our youth who deserve at the end of their schooling experience to be prepared for the world in which they’re going to live and work and think and play and be. That’s the obligation of each and every one of us. No educator gets to disown this.
    • Lucy Chubb
      Lucy Chubb on 23 Oct 10
       
      Taking responsibility for your learning--we expect it from our students, why not our faculty?
    • Lucy Chubb
      Lucy Chubb on 23 Oct 10
       
      I'm very glad that I am able to discuss and add input to help create change.
  • anonymous on 03 Oct 10
     
    "If you're a teacher / administrator / librarian / education professor that somehow 'doesn't even realize [yet] that there's a decision to be made,' should you even be working in a school or university? Don't our children and our school systems need and deserve someone who's in a different place than you are? It's one thing to still be a learner; heck, we're all learners with this technology stuff. It's another to opt out or not even recognize the choice. If we look at what our kids need, shouldn't we replace you with someone else? "
  • anonymous on 03 Oct 10
     
    What do you think of this post? Look for the sticky note and let's discuss it.
anonymous

Educational Leadership:Teaching for the 21st Century:21st Century Skills: The Challenge... - 0 views

www.ascd.org/...lls@_The_Challenges_Ahead.aspx

shared by anonymous on 07 Sep 09 - Cached
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      This will come as a shck to a lot of folks, eh? Not new?
  • But in fact, the skills students need in the 21st century are not new.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      Not new, eh? Then what's all the fuss? Read on.
  • What's actually new is the extent to which changes in our economy and the world mean that collective and individual success depends on having such skills.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      Ah! So THAT's the difference. Yes, I would agree. You?
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • This distinction between "skills that are novel" and "skills that must be taught more intentionally and effectively" ought to lead policymakers to different education reforms than those they are now considering. If these skills were indeed new, then perhaps we would need a radical overhaul of how we think about content and curriculum. But if the issue is, instead, that schools must be more deliberate about teaching critical thinking, collaboration, and problem solving to all students, then the remedies are more obvious, although still intensely challenging.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      I like this paragraph. We need only be more deliberate with our intent to focus on these skils. It's not a complete overhaul, then. I think schools would be more likely to accept this perspective, don't you?
  • To complicate the challenge, some of the rhetoric we have heard surrounding this movement suggests that with so much new knowledge being created, content no longer matters; that ways of knowing information are now much more important than information itself. Such notions contradict what we know about teaching and learning and raise concerns that the 21st century skills movement will end up being a weak intervention for the very students—low-income students and students of color—who most need powerful schools as a matter of social equity.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      Some folks even go so far as to say that we don't have to teach the times tables any more. I cringe when I hear that.
  • What will it take to ensure that the idea of "21st century skills"—or more precisely, the effort to ensure that all students, rather than just a privileged few, have access to a rich education that intentionally helps them learn these skills—is successful in improving schools? That effort requires three primary components. First, educators and policymakers must ensure that the instructional program is complete and that content is not shortchanged for an ephemeral pursuit of skills. Second, states, school districts, and schools need to revamp how they think about human capital in education—in particular how teachers are trained. Finally, we need new assessments that can accurately measure richer learning and more complex tasks.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      Do you agree with his three points? Is his missing any?
  • Why would misunderstanding the relationship of skills and knowledge lead to trouble? If you believe that skills and knowledge are separate, you are likely to draw two incorrect conclusions. First, because content is readily available in many locations but thinking skills reside in the learner's brain, it would seem clear that if we must choose between them, skills are essential, whereas content is merely desirable. Second, if skills are independent of content, we could reasonably conclude that we can develop these skills through the use of any content. For example, if students can learn how to think critically about science in the context of any scientific material, a teacher should select content that will engage students (for instance, the chemistry of candy), even if that content is not central to the field. But all content is not equally important to mathematics, or to science, or to literature. To think critically, students need the knowledge that is central to the domain.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      I like this, too. Having a firm grip on basic knowledge (times tables, for example) is a MUST for the higher order ideas we're after.
  • Because of these challenges, devising a 21st century skills curriculum requires more than paying lip service to content knowledge.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      Hear Hear!
  • Advocates of 21st century skills favor student-centered methods—for example, problem-based learning and project-based learning—that allow students to collaborate, work on authentic problems, and engage with the community. These approaches are widely acclaimed and can be found in any pedagogical methods textbook; teachers know about them and believe they're effective. And yet, teachers don't use them. Recent data show that most instructional time is composed of seatwork and whole-class instruction led by the teacher (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network, 2005). Even when class sizes are reduced, teachers do not change their teaching strategies or use these student-centered methods (Shapson, Wright, Eason, & Fitzgerald, 1980). Again, these are not new issues. John Goodlad (1984) reported the same finding in his landmark study published more than 20 years ago.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      This is important, I believe, if we're to promote these ideas.
  • Why don't teachers use the methods that they believe are most effective? Even advocates of student-centered methods acknowledge that these methods pose classroom management problems for teachers. When students collaborate, one expects a certain amount of hubbub in the room, which could devolve into chaos in less-than-expert hands. These methods also demand that teachers be knowledgeable about a broad range of topics and are prepared to make in-the-moment decisions as the lesson plan progresses. Anyone who has watched a highly effective teacher lead a class by simultaneously engaging with content, classroom management, and the ongoing monitoring of student progress knows how intense and demanding this work is. It's a constant juggling act that involves keeping many balls in the air.
  • Most teachers don't need to be persuaded that project-based learning is a good idea—they already believe that. What teachers need is much more robust training and support than they receive today, including specific lesson plans that deal with the high cognitive demands and potential classroom management problems of using student-centered methods.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Sep 09
       
      TIME! And RE-training. Where is this truly modeled? It's VERY difficult to teach in a model that yo've never experienced either as a teacher or a student.
  • Without better curriculum, better teaching, and better tests, the emphasis on "21st century skills" will be a superficial one that will sacrifice long-term gains for the appearance of short-term progress.
Amy Soule

SL2.0: Visioning the School Library 2.0 - Infomancy - 0 views

schoolof.info/infomancy

creative commons school libraries web2.0 library

shared by Amy Soule on 23 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Amy Soule on 23 Jun 09
     
    A leader of a School Library System in New York shares his vision of what School Library Web 2.0 might look like.
Beth Hartranft

Top 10 Back to School iPhone Apps Gallery - 0 views

gizmodo.com/...gallery

iTouch apps iphone

shared by Beth Hartranft on 18 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Beth Hartranft on 18 Sep 09
     
    Useful apps for back to school
  • Beth Hartranft on 18 Sep 09
     
    Useful apps for back to school... for all of the iTouch and iphone users out there.
anonymous

Poof! 'Template writing' on FCAT shows up in 12 districts- - 0 views

www.orlandosentinel.com/...writing-071709,0,6758419.story

testing

shared by anonymous on 20 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Writing exams from 49 schools were found to have "template writing" -- instances in which students from the same school used identical or similar phrases on FCAT essays, such as "Poof! Now I'm in dragon land." The patterns were discovered when the exams were scored. Some educators blame the problem on FCAT, the state's high-stakes test, and the pressure to score well. The phrases found repeatedly seem an attempt to showcase colorful, creative writing, and they might be viewed that way if they were used by individual children. But when many youngsters in a school write the same way, the department suspects that rote memorization, rather than good writing, is at play.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 20 Jul 09
       
      What do we think of this practice? Do we think it's "legal?" Fair? Or, is it just a sign of the enormous pressures brought on by those tests?
  • anonymous on 20 Jul 09
     
    What have we done to education? Look what some schools are doing just to get past the state tests!
anonymous

School 2.0 - 0 views

www.ibo.org/...school2.cfm

shared by anonymous on 31 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Picture a classroom where every student has their own tablet PC, with wireless internet access and videoconferencing equipment to give them access to academics, industry experts and other schools around the world. The teacher begins the lesson by drawing students’ attention to a new discussion thread that’s appeared overnight on an online forum about a text they’re studying.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 31 Jul 09
       
      I think you'l find the rest of this article interesting, too. Good food for thought.
  • You no longer need to be fluent in HTML to benefit from the digital revolution. Web 2.0 tools are closing the divide between richer and poorer regions, and between the ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’ of the online world. Cloud computing, where resources and software are stored online, means hardware is no longer necessary, and the growth of free programmes and services lets anyone create their own wiki, blog or podcast.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 31 Jul 09
       
      See any terms you recognize in this paragraph? :-)
  • The extent to which technology can transform the world, and education, is illustrated by the ‘flat classroom’ project, run by Julie Lindsay, head of information technology and e-learning at Qatar Academy in Doha, Qatar, and Vicki Davis of Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia, USA. The project began in 2006 as an online collaboration between the two schools, inspired by Thomas L. Friedman’s book The World is Flat. It has now sprouted two sister projects – ‘digiteen’ and ‘horizon’, which have so far involved more than 800 students and 200 educators from across the world.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “Technology isn’t magic. It doesn’t provide instant solutions. It challenges teachers to improve their practice by being more flexible and creative, and it challenges students to reflect on the limitations of technology as well as its capabilities. The best way to learn is by practising together.”
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 31 Jul 09
       
      Right. It's not a Silver Bullet, but it DOES help to engage
anonymous

The tools of learning have changed - Mind Dump - 1 views

www.minddump.org/tools-of-learning-have-changed

quote

shared by anonymous on 03 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • anonymous on 03 Oct 10
     
    "the tools of learning have changed, as have the tools of collaboration, of distribution, of creation, and if our schools do not teach these - and much more - help our students to understand how they must manipulate these tools for their purposes - and the world's - nothing else we do in school really matters, because our students will not be able to effectively work with what they know."
anonymous

100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School | Online Colleges - 2 views

www.onlinecolleges.net/...t-will-save-you-time-in-school

Google

shared by anonymous on 28 Oct 09 - Cached
  • anonymous on 28 Oct 09
     
    Number 3 is why some schools block Google. To me, that's an AUP violation, not an issue for CIPA.
anonymous

All Passage Middle School classes will blog this year -- dailypress.com - 0 views

www.dailypress.com/...eets_0822aug24,0,1313238.story

blogging

shared by anonymous on 24 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Passage teachers have been encouraged to create an account on Twitter, an online social networking site that limits each posting to 140 characters. Teachers will attend a morning screening of the movie "Julie & Julia" and "live blog" the experience with their Twitter accounts. Rogers chose the movie, based on the experiences of two real people, because one character uses a blog as an education and communication tool.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 24 Aug 09
       
      Is twitter blocked in your school? You have to ask WHY!
  • anonymous on 24 Aug 09
     
    Imagine! And they, too, are following the CIPA laws - the same laws that some of our schools are using as reasons to BLOCK all blogs!
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