FYI ONLINE

Texting education

2010-05-28T16:53:00.002-04:00

Teacher opens communication through technology

* By Elaine Marsilio

CORPUS CHRISTI — Sandy Riggs asked her 24 freshmen biology students to text her what they thought DNA precipitation meant during a recent class.

What she got was a flood of text messages — one after the other.

“I never see this with hands,” Riggs said. “This is awesome.”

Riggs doesn’t always give her students assignments involving text messaging.

But the 35-year-old Collegiate High School teacher allows her students to text her about homework, absences, or just life questions and concerns.

Riggs said using texting as an education tool has increased her students’ access to her, their confidence and ultimately gained their trust.

“They know I care. They are going to be more responsive,” she said.

Read the article.

Schools Factor E-Courses Into the Daily Learning Mix

2010-05-17T17:53:00.003-04:00

By Michelle R. Davis

Educators say 'hybrid' approach is taking off because it offers academic classes not otherwise available to many students.

It isn’t a stretch to say that the 200 students at Notus Jr. Sr. High School live far away from the kinds of services many people take for granted. But even in their rural Idaho school, students’ choices of classes include French and Spanish, college-level study, digital photography, and criminal justice.

That’s because Principal Benjamin M. Merrill has created “Pirate Academy,” a roster of online courses that students can take as part of their regular school day.

Read the article.

Is Technology Making Children More Empathic?

2010-04-27T10:29:00.002-04:00

[T]he traditional classroom curriculum continues to emphasize learning as a highly personal experience designed to acquire and control knowledge by dint of competition with others. The shift into the distributed ICT [Information and Communications Technology] revolution, however, and the proliferation of social networks and collaborative forms of engagement on the Internet are creating deep fissures in the orthodox approach to education. The result is that a growing number of educators are beginning to revise curricula by introducing distributed and collaborative learning models into the classroom. Intelligence, in the new way of thinking, is not something that is divided up among people but, rather, the field of experience that is shared between people.

Read more here.

An Open Mind

2010-04-21T11:08:00.004-04:00

At 83, Marian C. Diamond has been teaching anatomy at the University of California, Berkeley, for 50 years. Her class is so popular that it’s difficult for students to get in, though she holds court at the campus’s largest lecture hall, with room for 736.

She begins by opening a colorful hatbox. Dressed in an elegant suit and scarf with her hair swept back into a chignon, Professor Diamond pulls on a pair of latex gloves and reveals the box’s contents: a human brain. It is in alcohol, she says, “because alcohol will preserve the brain. Need I say more?” The students laugh as they take this in. She has the room in the palm of her hands.

Professor Diamond is one of the tweedy celebrities of cyberspace. Videos of her anatomy course, Integrative Biology 131, have been viewed nearly 1.5 million times on YouTube, where they have been available since 2005 to anyone with an Internet connection. Some of the world’s foremost scholars are up there for viewing, tuition free. From Yale, you can tune into an economics class by a professor with his own home-price index, Robert Shiller, or a course by the Milton scholar John Rogers. The undisputed rock star academic is Walter H. G. Lewin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who flies across the room to demonstrate that a pendulum swings no faster or slower when there is an added mass (Professor Lewin) hanging at the end.

Read the entire article.

Distance Education's Rate of Growth Doubles at Community College

2010-04-14T11:47:00.002-04:00

Distance education is growing quickly at community colleges, according to the results of a study published by the Instructional Technology Council. For the 2008-9 academic year, enrollment in distance learning at community colleges grew 22 percent over the 2007-8 academic year, up from a growth rate of 11 percent in the previous year.

You can read the entire article here.

Traditional schools aren't working. Let's move learning online.

2010-04-06T11:14:00.001-04:00

Deep within America's collective consciousness, there is a little red schoolhouse. Inside, obedient children sit in rows, eagerly absorbing lessons as a kind, wise teacher writes on the blackboard. Shiny apples are offered as tokens of respect and gratitude.

The reality of American education is often quite different. Beige classrooms are filled with note-passers and texters, who casually ignore teachers struggling to make it to the end of the 50-minute period. Smart kids are bored, and slower kids are left behind. Anxiety about standardized tests is high, and scores are consistently low. National surveys find that parents despair over the quality of education in the United States -- and they're right to, as test results confirm again and again.

Read the entire Washington Post article.

Career U. - Making College 'Relevant'

2010-03-30T11:10:00.003-04:00

Even before they arrive on campus, students — and their parents — are increasingly focused on what comes after college. What’s the return on investment, especially as the cost of that investment keeps rising? How will that major translate into a job?

There’s evidence that employers don’t want students specializing too soon. The Association of American Colleges and Universities recently asked employers who hire at least 25 percent of their workforce from two- or four-year colleges what they want institutions to teach. The answers did not suggest a narrow focus. Instead, 89 percent said they wanted more emphasis on “the ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing,” 81 percent asked for better “critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills” and 70 percent were looking for “the ability to innovate and be creative.”

Read the entire article.

High Schools Make Digital Connections With Tech-Savvy Students

2010-03-23T13:34:00.001-04:00

Online education used to be a kind of game that saved students from the harder work of actually learning something. But that has changed. The programs have changed, becoming more challenging and more easily monitored and measured. And the world has changed so that technology skills are vital, not just useful, in life and in the workplace.

Faced with the daunting task of preparing students for the 21st century workplace while budgets are being cut, schools are finding ways to incorporate online learning. In addition to making education more effective, the online offerings help students with special needs ranging from making up classes and serving gifted students to accommodating home schooling and traveling students.

“Innovative technologies have the ability to truly transform education, allowing greater access and educational opportunities for all students,” said Tracy Gray, director of the National Center for Technology Innovation at the American Institutes for Research. “For U.S. students to maintain competitiveness in our global economy, it is critical that we fully embrace and use the wide array of online platforms currently being used internationally.”

Read the entire article here.

National Broadband Plan Addresses K-12 Needs

2010-03-18T10:10:00.000-04:00

‘Strong Educational Recommendations’

The document calls for improving efficiency in obtaining E-rate aid by simplifying applications for small projects and multiyear renewals instead of holding them to the same process as large, complex projects.

In addition to changes to the E-rate program, the broadband plan aims to decrease the barriers to online learning by re-evaluating teacher and course certifications across state lines and measuring completion of online courses through student achievement, as opposed to so-called seat time.

“The plan makes strong educational recommendations with a focus on online learning for expanding access to high-quality courses and programs,” said Susan Patrick, the president and chief executive officer of the Vienna, Va.-based International Association for K-12 Online Learning.

Click here to read the entire article.

Making the Case for Social Media in Education

2010-03-12T13:15:00.001-05:00

The 3/9/10 #edchat discussion was another example of the most scrolling fun you can have in an hour on the Internet. The topic this time was "How can social media create real change in education?"

Right away, folks got busy reframing the question in more "real" terms:

@blairteach: Question might be better to say, "How IS social media creating real change in education?"

@dtitle: better topic... how will education keep up with social media and not be left in the dust

@unklar: I don't see any change at all at my school since the district is trying its best to block any and all social media

These additions brought to light the fact that we are struggling once again in education to keep up with the pace of a drastically changing society. Outside of schools, social media outlets are THE way that people now communicate, young and old alike (stop sending me chickens in Farmville, Mom!). The fact that we as educators even have to have discussions on whether or not social media is good for schools is sad. Social media just IS…..it's life.

Read the full blog at Edutopia by clicking here.

How are schools supporting, teaching the Net Generation?

2010-03-11T14:58:00.003-05:00

Tapscott on Changing Pedagogy for the Net Generation

Can you be a Rhodes Scholar and not read books? Did growing up digital produce the dumbest generation? Are screenagers multitasking, or do they have better acting working memory and better switching abilities than most?

This morning, Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics and Grown Up Digital, invited ASCD Annual Conference attendees to meet the Net Generation. They’re the first generation "bathed in bits," and they’re lapping their parents in digital acquisition. The only other time we've see such huge leaps in learning is when comparing language acquisition between immigrants and their children, Tapscott noted.

Collaboration is another major hallmark of the Net Generation. However, Tapscott said, we have a tendency to squander or prohibit this strength in schools and workplaces.

"What do we do with this collaboration-geared generation? We stick them in a cubicle, supervise them like they're Dilbert, and take away their tools (i.e., blocking sites like Facebook and Youtube)." Tapscott calls this creating a generational firewall. "It says, 'We don't get you, we don't understand your tools, and we don't trust you to use them.'"

These firewalls ignore evidence that students are putting their online organizing expertise to positive, productive use. Look no further than student movements in Iran, student-led political organizing during the Obama campaign, and civic activity at an all-time high in the United States, for example.

You can read the entire article here.

College Degrees Without Going to Class

2010-03-09T10:03:00.001-05:00

By THE EDITORS

Online courses have been around for nearly two decades, but enrollment has soared in recent years as more universities increase their offerings. More than 4.6 million college students (about one in four) were taking at least one online course in 2008, a 17 percent increase over 2007.

Institutions like Rutgers University and the University of California system are looking at expanding online courses as a way to keep down tuition costs or increase revenues. Recently, Rutgers said it would triple online revenues from $20.5 million to $60 million in five years.

Who benefits most from online courses — students or colleges? Are online classes as educationally effective as in-classroom instruction? Should more post-secondary education take place online?

Greg von Lehmen, provost, University of Maryland University College
Robert Zemsky, education professor, University of Pennsylvania
Anya Kamenetz, author, “DIY U”
Mark Bauerlein, English professor, Emory University
Karen Swan, education professor, University of Illinois Springfield
Ronald G. Ehrenberg, economist, Cornell University

You can read the full article here.

Schools must embrace mobile technology

2010-03-08T12:25:00.000-05:00

The need for schools to prepare for 21st century learning was top of the agenda at this year's BETT conference.

They must embrace mobile technologies, games, podcasts and social networking, according to leading educationalist Professor Stephen Heppell.

Schools should also break away from traditional classroom and curriculum models, he argued.

The gap between those schools embracing technology and those not is getting bigger, he said.

Prof Heppell was speaking to delegates at BETT, the world's biggest educational technology show.

Two Online Learning Reports Recently Released

2010-02-26T12:15:00.004-05:00

A recent update received from Susan Patrick, President & CEO of iNACOL, highlighted two online learning reports:

First is an Issue Brief written by Governor Bob Wise and Robert Rothman, released by the Alliance for Excellent Education, called The Online Learning Imperative: A Solution to Three Looming Crises in Education, February 2010. This report is terrific – it outlines a very succinct case for how online learning is a solution for education reform efforts in a time of difficult budgets. This is an important advocacy report and briefing for online learning programs.

Second is a policy memo from The White House – the Executive Office of the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. The memo is about Ed Tech Investments in the federal government , February 1, 2010. As background, in January 2010, the White House and Department of Education zeroed out the Title 2, Part D "Enhancing Education Through Technology" funding in the new budget. The memo outlines the reasoning and the places where you can find educational technology funding embedded in President Obama’s new proposed budget. Online learning is featured in the memo and all iNACOL members should be aware of the federal policy approaches. iNACOL is advocating for federal support and funding for K-12 online learning – including funding for online program development and online learning research.

Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom

2010-02-09T16:03:00.000-05:00

By STEVE LOHR

Update | 11:08 p.m. Read an article by Steve Lohr on keeping abreast of innovation in the Continuing Education special section.

A recent 93-page report on online education, conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a starchy academic title, but a most intriguing conclusion: “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”

The report examined the comparative research on online versus traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Some of it was in K-12 settings, but most of the comparative studies were done in colleges and adult continuing-education programs of various kinds, from medical training to the military.

Charter Schools Expanding into Public School Buildings?

2009-12-02T17:35:00.002-05:00

Suzanne Tecza had spent a year redesigning the library at Middle School 126 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, including colorful new furniture and elaborate murals of leafy trees. So when her principal decided this year to give the space to the charter high schools that share the building, Ms. Tecza was furious.

“It’s not fair to our students,” she said of the decision, which gives the charter students access to the room for most of the day. “It’s depriving them of a fully functioning library, something they deserve.”

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has made charter schools one of his third-term priorities, and that means that in New York, battles and resentment over space — already a way of life — will become even more common. He and his schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, have allowed nearly two-thirds of the city’s 99 charter schools to move into public school buildings, officials expect two dozen charter schools to open next fall, and the mayor has said he will push the Legislature to allow him to add 100 more in the next four years.

Todd Ziebarth, the vice president of policy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, called support like Mr. Klein’s “extremely rare.” “In starting a new school, you are also launching a small business,” Mr. Ziebarth said. “Space is the most difficult and challenging thing to think about and figure out.”

You can read the full article here.

More on Texting

2009-11-02T17:27:00.002-05:00

According to a recent US News article, texting in the classroom may not be as bad as once thought. Some teachers are even utilizing the text message for educational purposes.

Let's face it: Texting is here to stay. The average 13- to 17-year-old sends 2,900 texts a month, according to the market research firm Nielsen. And while it might be a punishable offense in most schools, some teachers say that texting has educational tie-ins and that it can teach positive language skills, the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina reports.

Forward-thinking teachers say the informal writing style that defines text messages can be incorporated into class lessons. And a new study from California State University researchers has found that texting can improve teens' writing in informal essays and many other writing assignments.

Teachers such as Cindi Rigsbee of Orange County, N.C., have asked students to translate passages from classic literature to texting-speak to demonstrate language comprehension in different contexts. A finding from the CSU study supports that concept: "Texting-speak is not a mangled form of English that is degrading proper language but instead a kind of 'pidgin' language all its own that actually stretches teens' language skills." The research does concede that too much texting can hurt students' performance on most formal types of essay writing.

You can read the full article here.

Will Chinese Dominate the Web?

2009-10-28T16:36:00.001-04:00

Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time. Figuring out how to rank real-time social content is "the great challenge of the age," Schmidt said in an interview in front of thousands of CIOs and IT Directors at last week's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009.

Highlighted comments include:

Five years from now the internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.
Today's teenagers are the model of how the web will work in five years - they jump from app to app to app seamlessly.
Five years is a factor of ten in Moore's Law, meaning that computers will be capable of far more by that time than they are today.
Within five years there will be broadband well above 100MB in performance - and distribution distinctions between TV, radio and the web will go away.

You can watch the complete interview with Eric Schmidt here.

Midnight Classes? Need for Online Ed Grows

2009-10-28T16:31:00.003-04:00

It seems that the rise in community college enrollment is forcing some schools to make some radical decisions.

Community colleges are being overwhelmed by an influx of new students, my colleague, Abby Goodnough, reports in an article in The Times today. As a result, some community colleges, like Bunker Hill in Boston, are offering classes at midnight.

Ms. Goodnough points out that many of the new students are recent high school graduates who could not attend more expensive four-year colleges, as well as “the jobless and others whom the recession has nudged back to school.”

Winston Chin is one of the students taking a writing class at Bunker Hill that runs from 11:45 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.

You can find the full article here.

Teacher Training Programs: The Winds of Change

2009-10-26T17:08:00.002-04:00

Calling scores of education school programs “mediocre,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Thursday implored universities to significantly change the way they prepare teachers to run classrooms, saying a “revolutionary change” was needed to train as many as one million new teachers in five years.

“By almost any standard, many if not most of the nation’s 1,450 schools, colleges and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st-century classroom,” he said.

David M. Steiner, the new state education commissioner, was previously dean of the education school at Hunter College, and has made similar critiques of traditional training programs. When he was appointed in July, he said the fact that the state’s licensing exam had a pass rate of more than 90 percent showed that the bar was too low.

You can read the full article here.

Theodore Sizer: Essential Schools

2009-10-26T17:06:00.002-04:00

Theodore R. Sizer, one of the country’s most prominent education-reform advocates, whose pluralistic vision of the American high school helped shape the national discourse on education and revise decades-old ideas of what a school should be, died on Wednesday at his home in Harvard, Mass. He was 77.

Theodore Sizer was known as the Father of the Essential Schools Movement.

The principles hold, among other things, that a school is an egalitarian community and that the student is a valued worker in that community, with the teacher in the role of mentor or coach. Depth of knowledge is emphasized over breadth, with the mastery of a few core subjects preferred over the scattershot spate of electives the modern high school seems to favor.

Please read the full NYTimes piece here.

Students Need to Think Bigger

2009-10-19T17:30:00.003-04:00

According to a recent New York Times article, "a computer scientist needs to grapple with data sets thousands of times as large and growing ever larger.

The next generation of computer scientists has to think in terms of what could be described as Internet scale. Facebook, for example, uses more than 1 petabyte of storage space to manage its users’ 40 billion photos. (A petabyte is about 1,000 times as large as a terabyte, and could store about 500 billion pages of text.)

It was not long ago that the notion of one company having anything close to 40 billion photos would have seemed tough to fathom. Google, meanwhile, churns through 20 times that amount of information every single day just running data analysis jobs. In short order, DNA sequencing systems too will generate many petabytes of information a year.

The article paints a very exciting picture of the future of computers but also warns of the need for greater scope of thought amongst future generations.

“It sounds like science fiction, but soon enough, you’ll hand a machine a strand of hair, and a DNA sequence will come out the other side,” said Jimmy Lin, an associate professor at the University of Maryland, during a technology conference held here last week.

You can find the full article here.

Drop Outs in Prison Increasing

2009-10-12T17:08:00.002-04:00

According to a recent NY Times article, about "one in every 10 young male high school dropouts is in jail" compared with about 1 in 35 graduates.

The new report, in its analysis of 2008 unemployment rates, found that 54 percent of dropouts ages 16 to 24 were jobless, compared with 32 percent for high school graduates of the same age, and 13 percent for those with a college degree.

Again, the statistics were worse for young African-American dropouts, whose unemployment rate last year was 69 percent, compared with 54 percent for whites and 47 percent for Hispanics. The unemployment rate among young Hispanics was lower, the report said, because included in that category were many illegal immigrants, who compete successfully for jobs with native-born youths.

Please read the full article here.

Astronomy for Middle School

2009-10-08T16:04:00.003-04:00

"Upper elementary and middle school is where most students happen to lose interest in science," Ride said. She saw her female friends lose interest in science at that age though, she said, "I never did."...Obama told the students "all you need is a passion for science."

Therefore,

The White House set up 20 telescopes, an inflatable dome with a three-dimensional video tour of the universe, and displays of moon rocks and meteorites as President Barack Obama was hosting a South Lawn star party for about 150 middle schoolers Wednesday evening.

The White House star party — which may be a first for the president's home, according to U.S. Naval Observatory spokesman Geoff Chester — is part of a worldwide emphasis on astronomy. This year marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first observations of Jupiter and its moons with a telescope, and has been designated the International Year of Astronomy.

The President interacted with the students while gazing at the stars.

"What will your great discovery be?" Obama asked the students before testing a telescope. "Galileo changed the world when he pointed his telescope to the sky. Now it's your turn.

"We need your restless curiosity," the president said.

You can read the full article here.

iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Programs

2009-10-07T16:53:00.001-04:00

Originally posted at iNacol.

WASHINGTON, DC, October 6, 2009 – The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) announces the release of ground-breaking quality standards for K-12 online learning titled, National Standards for Quality Online Programs. This publication is designed to provide states, districts, online programs, accreditation agencies and other organizations with a set of over-arching quality guidelines for online programs in several categories: leadership, instruction, content, support services and evaluation.

This document completes the triad of iNACOL’s online education quality standards, including the National Standards of Quality for Online Courses and National Standards for Quality Online Teaching. These standards provide the encompassing and broad set of standards program leaders need to assure quality.

“Our overall goal is to ensure that every student has access to the highest quality education available today. This is the first publication of K-12 online learning program quality standards to help evaluate and ensure effective oversight. Online program quality standards will help underscore how important effective management, administration, quality content and instruction, student and faculty support, and academic rigor are for K-12 online education,” says Susan Patrick, President and CEO of iNACOL.

K-12 online learning is growing at 30% annually. Thirty-four states have state-led virtual school programs, eighteen states offer full-time online learning programs, while 70% of school districts offer at least one online course to students. Online learning is expanding access to high quality educational opportunities for students, leveling the playing field for accessing highly-qualified teachers and helping to keep students on track for graduating on-time and college-ready.

The National Standards for Quality Online Programs are available on iNACOL’s website.

Brain to Brain Communication

2009-10-07T07:22:00.003-04:00

The new wave of social networking may just be true science fiction. Brain to brain communication, according to Accelerating Intelligence News, has been achieved.

Brain-to-brain ("B2B") communication has been achieved for the first time by Dr. Christopher James of the University of Southampton.

While attached to an EEG amplifier, the first person generated and transmitted a series of binary digits by imagining moving their left arm for zero and their right arm for one. That data was sent via the Internet to another PC. The second person was also attached to an EEG amplifier and their PC flashed an LED lamp at two different frequencies, one for zero and the other one for one.

Read the full article here.

The Vanishing Textbook

2009-10-06T12:14:00.003-04:00

The current economic crisis is forcing schools to look for creative ways to cut budgets. One of these ways may involve moving away from the traditional textbook toward the more functional digital textbook.

There is an unwelcome visitor in a lot of classrooms this fall. That would be the U.S. economy. States are cutting education spending to fill their budget holes. And in turn schools are cutting programs, bumping up class sizes, doing pretty much anything they can to cut costs.

One option that has started to get some attention is digital textbooks. They can go beyond just what is printed on the page. And they are a whole lot cheaper than those traditional hard-bound door stops that students have been carrying around for decades now. Marketplace's Stacey Vanek-Smith reports.

Online textbooks usually cost about $20 per student. Compare that to $100-plus for a traditional textbook. Right now digital books are only about 2 percent of the textbook market. But they're catching on fast at universities and now states are pushing them as a way for public schools to cut costs.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Starting this fall with high school math and science, we will be the first state in the nation to provide schools with a state-approved list of digital textbooks.

You can read the full article here.

Major Universities Embrace Student Blogs

2009-10-05T16:54:00.003-04:00

Dozens of colleges — including Amherst, Bates, Carleton, Colby, Vassar, Wellesley and Yale — are embracing student blogs on their Web sites, seeing them as a powerful marketing tool for high school students, who these days are less interested in official messages and statistics than in first-hand narratives and direct interaction with current students.

It seems, according to the NY Times article, that high school students just may be reading these college student's blogs. And although many younger students are not flocking to Twitter, they are interested in more enriching forms of interactions.

“High school students read the blogs, and they come in and say ‘I can’t believe Haverford students get to do such interesting things with their summers,’ ” he said. “There’s no better way for students to learn about a college than from other students.”

Many high school seniors avidly follow student blogs at the colleges they are interested in, and post comments. Luka, one of dozens responding to Ms. Chinea, for example, wrote: “I didn’t know about the anime club. I would have never guessed that people at M.I.T. are interested in anime. Oh well ... +1 on my ‘Why should I go to M.I.T.’ list.”

You can find the full article here.

GLBTQ Issues: Middle School and Openarms

2009-10-02T17:17:00.005-04:00

New York Times Magazine recently published an article about a 13 year old middle school student coming to terms with his sexuality. The Openarms Youth Project holds weekly youth dances and provides support for the kids.

Austin doesn’t have to play “the pretend game,” as he calls it, anymore. At his middle school, he has come out to his close friends, who have been supportive. A few of his female friends responded that they were bisexual. “Half the girls I know are bisexual,” he said. He hadn’t planned on coming out to his mom yet, but she found out a week before the dance. “I told my cousin, my cousin told this other girl, she told her mother, her mother told my mom and then my mom told me,” Austin explained. “The only person who really has a problem with it is my older sister, who keeps saying: ‘It’s just a phase! It’s just a phase!’ ”

“When I first realized I was gay,” Austin interjected, “I just assumed I would hide it and be miserable for the rest of my life. But then I said, ‘O.K., wait, I don’t want to hide this and be miserable my whole life.’ ”

I asked him how old he was when he made that decision.

“Eleven,” he said.

You can read the full article here.

Equitable Distribution of Effective Teachers

2009-10-02T12:54:00.002-04:00

How does the United States improve "the distribution of effective teachers to schools with high concentrations of poor and minority students?"

Lawmakers and teacher spokesmen had a spirited exchange here this week on the equitable distribution of effective teachers, illuminating the contours of a debate that will likely continue as Congress revisits the issue.

Differing opinions about incentive-pay programs, the role of test scores in pay and evaluation, and how prescriptive the federal government should be in seeking to boost teacher effectiveness were aired at a House hearing. It came as the upcoming renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and implementation of the economic-stimulus law are helping to spur such debate.

You can read the full article here.

Thomas Friedman Asks, "Where Did 'We' Go?"

2009-09-30T10:40:00.003-04:00

From CNN: Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele Wednesday beat back suggestions from some political commentators — most recently from the New York Times' Tom Friedman — that conservative opposition to President Obama is creating a political climate that may foreshadow attempts of violence against the commander-in-chief.

"Where do these nut jobs come from? Come on, stop this," Steele told CNN's John Roberts on American Morning in direct response to a quote from Friedman's column Wednesday

Here is an excerpt from Thomas Friedman's Column:

I was in Israel interviewing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin just before he was assassinated in 1995. We had a beer in his office. He needed one. I remember the ugly mood in Israel then — a mood in which extreme right-wing settlers and politicians were doing all they could to delegitimize Rabin, who was committed to trading land for peace as part of the Oslo accords. They questioned his authority. They accused him of treason. They created pictures depicting him as a Nazi SS officer, and they shouted death threats at rallies. His political opponents winked at it all.

And in so doing they created a poisonous political environment that was interpreted by one right-wing Jewish settler as a license to kill Rabin — he must have heard, “God will be on your side” — and so he did.

Others have already remarked on this analogy, but I want to add my voice because the parallels to Israel then and America today turn my stomach: I have no problem with any of the substantive criticism of President Obama from the right or left. But something very dangerous is happening. Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination.

You can read Thomas Friedman's complete column here.

Public Schools Recruiting Overseas

2009-09-29T17:29:00.006-04:00

According to a recent article published in the New York Times, some American school districts have turned their attention to foreign countries in order to recruit their public school teachers. Hard to staff schools are finding it increasingly difficult to attract teachers to their classrooms.

The report estimates that 19,000 foreign teachers were working in the United States on temporary visas in 2007, and that the number was rising steadily. There are more than three million teachers in American public schools.

Baltimore hired 108 teachers from the Philippines in 2005, but four years later has more than 600 Filipino teachers working in city classrooms, where they make up more than 10 percent of the teaching force.

Foreign instructors usually must show English proficiency to be hired, but sometimes districts inadequately assess them, and in such cases should offer help in improving fluency, the report said.

“Rather than attending job fairs throughout the Mid-Atlantic, trying to persuade reluctant American teachers to accept positions in troubled inner-city schools, H.R. officials can meet all their hiring needs in one trip,” the report says. “At a single career fair in Manila, they can interview hundreds of prescreened applicants, each of whom is eager to pay for the opportunity to work in Baltimore city schools.”

You can read the full article here.

President Obama Pushes for Longer School Days

2009-09-28T12:26:00.003-04:00

President Obama and Arne Duncan believe that schools should be the heart of the community. They also believe that the United States is at a disadvantage compared to other countries whose children spend more time in school each year.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

There is some evidence that longer school days are effective.

Boston's Clarence R. Edwards Middle School is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. "I've learned a lot," she said.

Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).

The current administration also would like to make greater strides in impoverished and underprivileged communities. The summer session is a time when many kids are in involved in sports, arts, camps, and various enrichment activities. However,

Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.

"If your parents are high school dropouts with low literacy levels and reading for pleasure is not hard-wired, it's hard to be a good role model for your children, even if you really want to be," Alexander said.

You can find the full article here.

Regular Exercise Increases Brain Function

2009-09-22T17:36:00.003-04:00

According to and article published in the New York Times, "any form of regular exercise should increase brain function."

In the study, scientists had two groups of mice swim a water maze and in a separate trial had them endure an unpleasant stimulus to see how quickly they would learn to move away from it. For the next four weeks they allowed one group of mice to run inside their rodent wheels, an activity most mice enjoy, while requiring the other group to push harder on minitreadmills at a speed and duration controlled by the scientists...Both groups of mice performed admirably in the water maze, bettering their performances from the earlier trial. But only the treadmill runners were better in the avoidance task, a skill that, according to brain scientists, demands a more complicated cognitive response.

“Our results support the notion that different forms of exercise induce neuroplasticity changes in different brain regions,” Chauying J. Jen, a professor of physiology and an author of the study, says.

But fundamental questions remain, like whether exercise must be strenuous to be beneficial. Should it be aerobic? What about weight lifting? And are the cognitive improvements permanent or fleeting?

Jen says researchers suspect that treadmill running is more intense and leads to improvements in “muscle aerobic capacity,” and this increased aerobic capacity, in turn, affects the brain more than the wheel jogging.

You can read the entire article here.

Common Core Standards

2009-09-21T10:21:00.003-04:00

The proposed common academic standards, which included the participation of 48 states, will be released to the public today. After October 21st, the math and language arts standards will be reviewed by a soon to be chosen validation committee.

According to Gene Wilhoit of the CCSSO,

“You’ll find greater consistency across both documents,” Gene Wilhoit, the CCSSO's executive director, said of the new draft. “Our sense is we were able to hold onto our goal.”

Although an earlier draft of the document was released in July of this year, there have since been significant changes in the language arts standards.

The language arts document is divided into three sections. One section presents presents “strands” of skills for reading, writing, and speaking and listening. A second discusses how those skills should be applied in conducting research or using various media.

The third section presents supporting materials, or “illustrative texts.” Those reading materials are meant to serve as “exemplars”—texts with a level of complexity students should be able to handle, to be ready for college or the workplace.

The earlier draft included just four illustrative texts: portions of the Declaration of Independence, a short story by Katherine Mansfield, a science text, and a sample business memo.

According to Chris Minnich, the CCSSO's director of standards,

The most significant alteration [in math], Mr. Minnich said, may have been establishing a new standard, called “mathematical practice,” defined in the document as the ways in which “proficient students approach mathematics.” The draft also includes 10 separate standards for math content, or “organizing principles” in the subject, which include numbers, equations, probability, and statistics. The authors concluded that mathematical practice—generally defined as the thinking, habits, and strategies used by students to solve problems—was important enough to be singled out, Mr. Minnich said.

The proposed math-standards document cites research on the curricula of high-performing countries that shows those nations’ schools focus on fewer topics than U.S. schools. It also notes that college math faculty have called for high school courses that do not just “survey advanced topics” but also encourage students to probe content in greater depth.

Spurred on by President Obama's proposal to give federal aid to states that adopt the common standards, states are taking this process very seriously.

As they write and revise the standards, CCSSO and NGA officials have said they are being guided by a search for the best available evidence of what works in math and language arts, rather than by unsupported opinion. To that end, drafts of the Common Core standards so far have included references to studies and standards from the United States and abroad.

You can read the full text of the article here.

Wikipedia: Where Do You Stand?

2009-09-18T16:19:00.005-04:00

Over the past few years, FYI Online has encountered a diverse portfolio of opinions regarding Wikipedia. School administrators, university presidents, classroom teachers, and curriculum developers, whether they are in favor of Wikipedia or not, seem to always approach the subject with an air of skepticism.

However, the online encyclopedia introduced new editing policies recently, and some say the site is becoming a valid source for students.

Eight years after Wikipedia's launch, professors such as [Mikhail] Lyubansky [of the University of Illinois] have come to accept the free online encyclopedia--which can be edited by any registered user with web access--as a legitimate research tool for students, especially after the site announced changes last month to its editing policies.

Some of the new policies are as follows.

Entries written by new Wikipedia users now will be edited by regular contributors, and changes to the biographies of celebrities or controversial figures will be reviewed before they go live on the site, said Erik Moeller, deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation, adding in a blog post that "false information can do the most serious harm to an individual."

Douglas Giles, a professor of philosophy at Elmhurst College, argues in support of Wikipedia.

Educators' opposition to Wikipedia is often rooted in a belief that students should look to peer-reviewed journals and print articles for sources of legitimate research.

"Professors who forbid Wikipedia are, in my opinion, being silly," Giles said. "The prejudice some professors have against Wikipedia … stems more from an ivory-tower elitism than any actual knowledge of the content of Wikipedia. One can easily find points of contention in any research tool."

FYI Online would love to hear what you think of Wikipedia. You can find the full article here.

Students and Parents Interested in Social Networking

2009-09-16T16:51:00.005-04:00

Amidst the articles and stories of individual teachers utilizing social networking tools like twitter and facebook, there are far more stories of resistance to the idea. "Social Networking in School: Incentives for Participation" illustrates some of the reasons for the resistance.

In July 2007, the National School Board Association published results of three surveys regarding social networking, which included 9- to 17-year-olds, parents, and school district leaders in charge of Internet policy. While it came as no surprise that 52 percent of all districts interviewed prohibited any use of social networking sites in school, an interesting result with implications for schools was that "almost 60 percent of students who use social networking talk about education topics online and, surprisingly, more than 50 percent talk specifically about schoolwork" (NSBA, 2007, p. 1). The NSBA also found that schools and especially parents have strong expectations about the positive roles that social networking could play in students' lives, and both are interested in social networking as a tool.

It seems that many people, students and parents alike, are yearning for social networking opportunities in schools. However,

According to NSBA, before district leaders would buy into social networking for school use, there would need to be a strong emphasis on collaborative and planned activities, strong tools for students to express themselves, and an emphasis on bringing different kinds of students together, all with adult monitoring. I would add that social networking activities have not been promoted in schools, in part, owing to how student achievement has been measured as mandated by the No Child Left Behind accountability system, which has strongly influenced daily life in classrooms.

You can read the full article here.

Healthcare Advocacy at the University of Miami

2009-09-14T16:50:00.004-04:00

The University of Miami's Division of Continuing and International Education announces the launch of a certificate program for healthcare advocacy. Set to launch in September, 2009, the program will lead the field in providing training for this growing occupation.

With the complex healthcare environment in the United States, an aging population and distance between families, healthcare advocacy is emerging as an important career to help untangle the complexity of the healthcare system. Professionals in the field provide their clients support in navigating the healthcare systems, oversee their medical care, help clients prepare Advanced Directives, resolve medical billing errors and ultimately, empower the patient. They serve as representatives for family members who are unable to be on the scene due to distance or scheduling issues and provide an important communications link between the patient, physicians and family members to result in better quality patient care.

"Healthcare advocacy is becoming an essential service for many families. It can provide peace of mind during a difficult time by reassuring family members that there is someone on the scene who is specifically looking out for their family member," said Marjorie Alfus, the program's founder.

Available courses include:

Methodologies for Success
Introduction to Healthcare Advocacy
Communication
Understanding the Patient Illness Experience
Role of Healthcare Advocate Across the Continuum
Financing Healthcare
Ethical Considerations from Birth to Death

You can read the full article in today's New York Times.

Free, Abundant Learning Combination

2009-08-25T17:03:00.003-04:00

Seth Godin's August 17th blog post, Education at the Crossroads, presents three choices that higher ed providers will have to make.

With universities like Stanford and MIT beginning to make available online courses for free, Wikipedia offering "the world's fact base" for free, and more and more people beginning to realize that schools are not necessarily always about learning, these three questions are vital for the future of education.

Should this be scarce or abundant?
Should this be free or expensive?
Should this be about school or about learning?

Ultimately, Godin explains, it's the free, abundant learning combination that will change the world.

The combinations...

Imagine a school that's built around free, abundant learning. And compare it to one that's focused on scarce, expensive schooling. Or dream up your own combination. My recent MBA program, for example, was scarce (only 9 people got to do it) and it was free and focused on learning.

Just because something is free doesn't meant there isn't money to be made. Someone could charge, for example, for custom curricula, or focused tutoring, or for a certified (scarce) degree. When a million people are taking your course, you only need 1% to pay you to be happy indeed.

Eight combinations of the three choices are available and my guess is that all eight will be tried. If I were going to wager, I'd say that the free, abundant learning combination is the one that's going to change the world.

You can read the full article here.

Teacher Evaluations and Student Test Scores

2009-08-17T17:09:00.004-04:00

From yesterdays New York Times:

Holding out billions of dollars as a potential windfall, the Obama administration is persuading state after state to rewrite education laws to open the door to more charter schools and expand the use of student test scores for judging teachers.

Many of President's staunchest supporters were educators who believed that with the election of a Democratic candidate, the No Child Left Behind Act would be rolled back.

The administration’s stance has caught by surprise educators and officials who had hoped that Mr. Obama’s calls during the campaign for an overhaul of the No Child law would mean a reduced federal role and less reliance on standardized testing. The law requires schools to bring all students to proficiency in reading and math by 2014and penalizes those that do not meet annual goals.

However, the current administrations stance may make the results of standardized tests even more controversial.

The proposed rules make testing an even more powerful factor in schools by extending the use of scores to teacher evaluations. The proposed rules for the $4.3 billion in grants, which the administration calls the Race to the Top, require states to show they are fostering innovation, improving achievement, raising standards, recruiting effective teachers, turning around failed schools and building data systems.

Just to be eligible to apply, a state must have no “barriers to linking data on student achievement or student growth to teachers and principals for the purpose of teacher and principal evaluation,” the rules say.

Connecting teacher evaluations to students test scores seems like a logical step; but anyone who has worked inside a real classroom with real students will undoubtedly have passionate opinions about this connection.

Please leave your comments here after you have read the article. You can read the full version here.

John Quincy Adams on Twitter

2009-08-06T16:29:00.004-04:00

The White House has a Twitter page, and so does a deceased President. John Quincy Adams has tweeted the first entry of the diary he kept during his 1809 tour of Russia. He has 5,000 followers and counting. Plus help from members of the Massachusetts Historical Society, which plans to post daily updates. They say the sixth president's succinct style easily translates into Tweets.

Read the article here.

It's Friday: "The Cove" Looks to Save the Dolphins

2009-07-31T17:19:00.006-04:00

"The Cove" is a documentary starring Richard O'Barry, the man who trained the dolphins who starred on televisions "Flipper."

That show essentially spawned Sea World and countless other aquariums around the world where dolphins perform stunts and interact with human beings, and O’Barry is now spending the rest of his life trying to make it up to our cetacean friends.

Dolphins, the big beautful dolphins that swim gracefully along the beaches, are still slaughtered by the hundreds off the coast of Japan.

...between September and March off the coast of Japan; they’re lured into a cove, and those that aren’t sold off to trainers are butchered.

What makes “The Cove” so powerful is that it’s not just an ecological horror show — it’s a real-life thriller that’s as suspenseful as anything cooked up by Hollywood. The perpetrators of the dolphin capture do everything possible to keep onlookers away, so director Louis Psihoyos and his team are forced to go rogue, submerging underwater microphones in the middle of the night, hiding hi-def cameras inside fake rocks created by Industrial Light and Magic, and risking their lives to show the world what’s happening in this isolated cove.

You can read the full article here.

Scientists Say Public is Clueless

2009-07-30T17:37:00.003-04:00

There has been lots of news lately discussing Americas scientific illiteracy. The Boston Globe recently published an article titled, The Formula.

Earlier this month, the Pew Research Center and the American Association for the Advancement of Science unveiled the latest embarrassing evidence of our nation’s scientific illiteracy. Only 52 percent of Americans in their survey knew why stem cells differ from other kinds of cells; just 46 percent knew that atoms are larger than electrons. On a highly contentious issue like global warming, meanwhile, the gap between scientists and the public was vast: 84 percent of scientists, but just 49percent of Americans, think human emissions are causing global warming.

Here is what many scientists believe.

On politicized issues like climate change, embryonic stem cell research, the teaching of evolution, and the safety of vaccines, many Americans not only question scientific expertise but even feel entitled to discard it completely. The reason, many scientists infer, is that the public is just clueless; perhaps we wouldn’t have these problems if the average citizen were better educated, more knowledgeable, better informed.

Is Americas scientific ineptitude the fault of the scientists themselves?

Decrying ignorance and scientific illiteracy, many scientists treat their fellow citizens as empty vessels waiting for an infusion of knowledge. That is exactly wrong, and exactly why so many people, in turn, see science and scientists as distant, inscrutable, aloof, arrogant. Rather than blaming, scientists ought to be engaging with the public, trying to personally make their knowledge hit home and to instill by example (rather than from a distance) the nature and virtues of the scientific mindset - while also encouraging average Americans to ask their own questions and have their say.

Read the full article here.

Good Teachers: Entrepeneurs?

2009-07-28T16:22:00.003-04:00

I came across a very interesting blog today. The theme revolves around the idea that the skills that make successful entrepreneurs are the same that make good teachers.

The difference between good and bad teachers comes down to one thing: entrepreneurship. Well, more precisely, I would say that good teachers must be entrepreneurial. This is a strange juxtaposition for many educators, but the myriad parallels between the two occupations are staggering.

The characteristics we associate with business men are as follows:

being resilient, adding value, seeking opportunity, planning ahead, adapting to change, and understanding one’s client.

Good teachers, the article goes on to say, are those that see their classrooms like a business.

They saw their curriculum like entrepreneurs see business plans and their students like entrepreneurs see customers. Some entrepreneurial ideas that good teachers are already thinking about: How is my lesson adding value? How do the objectives fit into my future plans? Can I review the plan and adapt to unforeseen change? Does my plan take into account the student perspective? What opportunities exist to extend this plan in the future?

You can read the full article here.

It's Friday: Dave Eggers Talks Zeitoun

2009-07-24T17:10:00.004-04:00

Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, is also a vigorous supporter of public education. He has given talks about his work with after-school tutoring centers, in which he has students working alongside professional writers to develop publications.

See Dave Eggers discuss his project here.

Now he has a new book. In Zeitoun, he writes about Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian immigrant who stays in New Orleans after the hurricane hit to look after his property and is arrested on suspicion of looting.

You can read more about this new book here.

Will Twitter Surpass Facebook?

2009-07-24T12:41:00.005-04:00

According to Business Insider, Twitter, as a means for sharing web content, is already half as popular as Facebook with only one-tenth the users.

That is a lot of tweets.

Read the entire article here.

Does Social Media Equal Financial Success?

2009-07-22T14:11:00.003-04:00

A recent study focusing on 100 companies from the 2008 Business Week/Interbrand Best Global Brands determined that companies most "engaged" in social media are experiencing "higher financial success.

After examining the companies and their social media activity levels, the brands were ranked on an "engagement scale" where scores ranged from a high of 127 to a low of 1. Those brands that were the most engaged saw their revenue grow over the past year by 18% while the least engaged brands saw losses of negative 6%.

Companies like Starbucks, Dell, and EBay head the list. These companies, identified as the "mavens," are engaged in 7 or more social media channels.

Out of the top 10 brands engaged in social media, the mavens dominate the list. All of the top 10 are mavens and have seen financial success even in a down economy:
1. Starbucks (127) 2. Dell (123) 3. eBay (115) 4. Google (105) 5. Microsoft (103) 6. Thomson Reuters (101) 7. Nike (100) 8. Amazon (88) 9. SAP (86) 10. Tie - Yahoo!/Intel (85)

Read the full article here.

Digital Voice Recorders: Students Generating Content

2009-07-20T16:38:00.004-04:00

New technology in digital voice recorders has created a renewed desire for students to utilize them in schools. According to a recent article published in Education Week, students from Oklahoma to Oregon are now generating their own content.

“I think that a digital recorder is one of those things that I would put in every middle school [and high school] student’s backpack. There are so many ways they could use it,” says Larry S. Anderson, the founder and director of the Tupelo, Miss.-based National Center for Technology Planning, a clearinghouse of information about technology in the classroom.

Eva LaMar, a third grade teacher, has her students create podcasts with local park officials. According to LaMar, “the technology needs to be invisible, and the content needs to be in the forefront.”

There are many pros and cons to utilizing these devices in schools, but ultimately, according to the article, once the students have the tool in their hands, the possibilities for what they can be used for are vast—ranging from recording narration for a video, to practicing a lecture or speech, to creating podcasts, says Abrams. “Having a digital recorder makes it easy and painless for students to record their voice and the world around them.”

These recorders are ideal for online institutions as well. The big questions surrounding online learning are often centered on skills that many believe can only be achieved in classroom.

You can read the full article here.

It's Friday: Comic-Con 2009 Arrives

2009-07-17T15:44:00.002-04:00

July 23rd 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the Comic-Con International festival. The diverse guest list includes comic book writers, illustrators, science fiction writers and artists, and actors and actresses. The Comic-Con also promotes the latest films, novels, and artwork related to the genre.

Some of this years notable attendees are Ray Bradbury,

who has published more than 600 short stories over a period of sixty years. He has written short stories, novels, screenplays, plays, and poetry. His best-known books are The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Fahrenheit 451. A novel, Farewell Summer, which is the sequel to Bradbury’s classic Dandelion Wine, was published in October of 2006. In September of 2007 his book Now And Forever: Somewhere a Band is Playing and Leviathan ’99 was released. In February 2009 another collection of short stories, We’ll Always Have Paris, was published. He was a guest at the very first San Diego Comic-Con in 1970, and wrote the Foreword for Comic-Con: 40 Years of Artists, Writers, Fans and Friends!, the new pictorial history celebrating the show’s 40th event.

Kevin J Anderson,

international bestselling author of nearly 100 books, with 20 million copies in print. He and Brian Herbert have co-authored 12 Dune novels. Anderson has also written the SF epic "Saga of Seven Suns" and two novels set in the DC Universe: Last Days Of Krypton and Enemies & Allies. He has written comics for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW, and WildStorm.

and Kevin Eastman,

already a Jack Kirby fan — Kevin Eastman's first drawing was on the house walls. First published cartoon was in Clay Greedes Comics Wave; first published comic: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (with co- creator Peter Laird); first Magazine purchased: Heavy Metal (and still acting publisher). Currently lives in Los Angeles with Pamela, two kids named Shane and Peter (also Kirby fans), as well as eight dogs: Pickles, Pudding, Pretzel, Pumpkin, Taco, Coco, Olive, and Mr. Man. Oh, and a hamster named Cindy.

Check out the entire guest list here.

What is the Silent Education Crisis?

2009-07-16T17:48:00.009-04:00

E. J. Dionne, in today's Washington Post discusses the silent education crisis. He argues that the United States is fairing poorly at educating its people after high school.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor honored this national article of faith in a lovely tribute to her mother at her confirmation hearings. "She taught us that the key to success in America is a good education," Sotomayor said.

"And she set the example, studying alongside my brother and me at our kitchen table so that she could become a registered nurse."

In telling this story of intergenerational mobility, Sotomayor was describing how our education system is supposed to work — and, inadvertently perhaps, pointed to how it's failing so many now.

Dionne goes on to point out that federal grants for post graduate education have dropped dramatically since 1976.

In 1976, the year Sotomayor graduated from Princeton, federal Pell Grants for low-income students covered 72 percent of the average cost of a four-year state institution. An excellent education (if not necessarily at Princeton) was, in principle, within reach of most Americans. But by 2003, Pell Grants covered only 38 percent of the cost of attending a state university.

And we are falling behind in the world rankings of citizens with postsecondary degrees.

Today, the United States stands tenth in the percentage of 25- to-34-year-olds who have earned a postsecondary degree. We're behind Canada, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Denmark and France.

You can read the full article here.

Analysts Predict Huge Strides for Online Courses

2009-07-15T15:46:00.003-04:00

According to an article in today's St Louis Post Dispatch,

One analysis suggests that by the year 2019, about 50 percent of all high school courses will be delivered online.

The number of online high schools in Missouri has reached 5. In Illinois, there are at least 5 as well.

"The first year I was on the road with this thing, people were really leery," said Curt Fuchs, with the state-funded Missouri Virtual Instruction Program, or MOVIP. "I don't run into as many naysayers as we once did."

And although online high schools still face certain obstacles,

...advocates of online education say the courses are producing results. One 2005 survey from the North Central Regional Education Laboratory says students seem to perform equally well or better in online classes compared to traditional classes.

You can read the full story here.

What Exactly is Makeup Work?

2009-07-14T17:19:00.003-04:00

It has been a year since the New York State education programs began looking at credit recovery and independent study programs. According to the most recent New York Times article,

A year after reports showed that New York City high schools were offering failing students a chance to earn credit simply by completing worksheets or attending weeklong cram sessions, educators say the system of making up schoolwork is still abused, and the state is seeking to crack down on it.

At William H. Maxwell Career and Technical Education High School in Brooklyn, for instance, a nearly illiterate student racked up many of his credits through after-school remediation programs. He was promoted to 12th grade still unable to write full sentences or read a line of text, his teachers said.

However, the Department of Education's chief spokesperson, David Cantor, stated the following,

“We’re not conceding that the schools were a kind of Wild West of ad hoc credit recovery on the cheap, with bizarre sorts of makeup opportunities for kids...Most schools were making a diligent attempt.”

You can read the full article here.

It's Friday: Science or Science Fiction

2009-07-10T15:49:00.004-04:00

A story published today at Wired.com contemplates the possibility of hackers some day hacking into our brains.

In the past year, researchers have developed technology that makes it possible to use thoughts to operate a computer, maneuver a wheelchair or even use Twitter — all without lifting a finger. But as neural devices become more complicated — and go wireless — some scientists say the risks of “brain hacking” should be taken seriously.

and later,

For example, the next generation of implantable devices to control prosthetic limbs will likely include wireless controls that allow physicians to remotely adjust settings on the machine. If neural engineers don’t build in security features such as encryption and access control, an attacker could hijack the device and take over the robotic limb.

And for anyone who wonders about a motive for this type of violation,

...researchers say there’s a precedent for using computers to cause neurological harm. In November 2007 and March 2008, malicious programmers vandalized epilepsy support websites by putting up flashing animations, which caused seizures in some photo-sensitive patients.

Read the entire article here. And as you sit down to tweet, blog, or game over the weekend, you may want to consider anti spyware for your brain.

Virtual Classrooms in High Demand

2009-07-09T15:54:00.005-04:00

According to a new report from Project Tomorrow and Blackboard Inc, "the availability of online classes in K-12 schools and districts hasn't kept pace with the demand."

According to the report, more than 40 percent of sixth through 12th graders have researched or demonstrated interest in taking a course online, but only 10 percent have actually taken an online course through their school. Meanwhile, 7 percent of middle school students and 4 percent of high school students instead have pursued opportunities outside their school to take online courses--underscoring the disconnect between the supply and demand for online learning in today's schools.

According to Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, there remains a lag in utilizing [online] technology for student achievement. She goes on to say,

"Educators must embrace these emerging technologies to enhance student learning and fully prepare today's students for future success."

Read the entire article here.

The Push for National Standards

2009-07-08T15:45:00.003-04:00

According to the Christian Science Monitor, 47 states now support drafting national education standards. According to Michael Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, however,

there's still a lot of peril on the road," he says. While state leaders are eager to collaborate, "not a single state has promised to adopt the standards."

And later the article states,

Though powerful people – including President Obama – are promoting the idea, it is by no means a done deal. Once the standards are open to public comment, "make no mistake about it, there will be controversy," says Tom Loveless, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Old debates about the best ways to teach math and reading – think phonics versus whole-language – could be reignited.

Read the entire article here.

National Summer Learning Day

2009-07-08T15:35:00.005-04:00

President Barack Obama has declared July 9, 2009 National Summer Learning Day.

The press release begins with,

Like an athlete out of practice, a child who takes long breaks from learning can face academic setbacks. This problem is especially prominent during the summer, when students may lose more than two months of progress. Children must remain engaged to maintain and build upon their current academic achievement.

and ends with,

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim July 9, 2009, as National Summer Learning Day. I call upon all Americans to support students as they participate in summer learning. I encourage students, parents, educators, and the non-profit community to engage in summer learning activities so that youth return to school poised for academic advancement.

You can read the full White House Press Release here.

Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies

2009-07-07T15:25:00.004-04:00

The Center for Technology and Learning published the Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies in 2009. Below is an excerpt from the section titled, Conceptual Framework for Online Learning.

Modern online learning includes offerings that run the gamut from conventional didactic lectures or textbook-like information delivered over the Web to Internet-based collaborative role-playing in social simulations and highly interactive multiplayer strategy games. Examples include primary-grade students working on beginning reading skills over the Internet, middle school students collaborating with practicing scientists in the design and conduct of research, and teenagers who dropped out of high school taking courses online to attain the credits needed for graduation. The teachers of K–12 students may also participate in online education, logging in to online communities and reference centers and earning inservice professional development credit online.

To guide the literature search and review, the research team developed a conceptual framework identifying three key components describing online learning: (a) whether the activity served as a replacement for or an enhancement to conventional face-to-face instruction, (b) the type of learning experience (pedagogical approach), and (c) whether communication was primarily synchronous or asynchronous. Each component is described in more detail below.

You can read the entire report here.

FYI Online Learning and GLBTQ Online High School

2009-07-06T15:31:00.005-04:00

FYI Online Learning has donated all 78 of its online high school courses to GLBTQ Online High School for 2 years.

"Christopher Gentile, CEO of FYI Online agreed to provide GLBTQ Online High School with student access to all 78 of its online high school courses free of charge for 2 years; a donation valued at more than one-half million dollars. “I am pleased to be able to give back to the GLBT community in this significant way,” said Dr. Gentile. “This is an important initiative, and I’m glad that Mr. Glick and his team are launching a school sensitive to the needs of GLBT youth. Together, we will help a lot of young people worldwide.” Dr. Gentile will also be joining the school’s Advisory Board."

You can read the full article here.