21 Things That Will Become Obsolete in Education by 2020

An interesting article by Shelley Blake-Plock. I agree with many of these predictions. Hopefully the mac-n-cheese one as well :-) Click here to read the article...

Tech Integration Coaches

I had an interesting system of coordinating tech integration at a school, presented to me today. I had been thinking that having one tech integrator/coordinator at each division would be ideal. But maybe a better method is to give a stipend or release time to a person in each subject department area, and make them a Tech Coach. Then have one main tech integrator (maybe one main one in elementary, and one for MS/HS), who would then regularly meet with these "coaches" to help with their individual integration efforts. This would give more ownership to the staff to ensure tech integration is occurring, and someone would always be at the team/department meetings to make sure that tech integration is being talked about. These people would also have their fingers on the pulse of the other staff on other items, and could be a Tech Advisory Council (TAC) on issues such as 1-1, software/hardware purchases, and the school tech plan. If they were given release time, then they could be helping other teachers as well. It would look great on their resume...Hmmm....

Making the Shift Happen: Embracing 21st Century Learning at Your School

Kim Coffino from Yokohama International School came as part of the NESA Fall Institute to our school, and had created this wiki of great strategies, lesson ideas and links to help schools with their 21st century learning goals. Take a look!

http://makingtheshifthappen.wikispaces.com/Home

What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all


A very powerful article that speaks to character education and its role in helping students succeed. Some interesting quotes:

• “Learning is hard. True, learning is fun, exhilarating and gratifying – but it is also often daunting, exhausting and sometimes discouraging… To help chronically low-performing but intelligent students, educators and parents must first recognize that character is at least as important as intellect.”
• Early research showed that self-control was a more reliable predictor of grades than
  I.Q., but she subsequently zeroed in on another quality: grit – the passion for a single mission, unswerving
  dedication to getting there, and perseverance in overcoming obstacles
• “And yet we all know – on some level, at least – that what kids need more than anything is a little hardship: some challenge, some deprivation that they can overcome, even if just to prove to themselves that they can..”
  

In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores

From: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

From the article:
"To be sure, test scores can go up or down for many reasons. But to many education experts, something is not adding up — here and across the country. In a nutshell: schools are spending billions on technology, even as they cut budgets and lay off teachers, with little proof that this approach is improving basic learning.
This conundrum calls into question one of the most significant contemporary educational movements. Advocates for giving schools a major technological upgrade — which include powerful educators, Silicon Valley titans and White House appointees — say digital devices let students learn at their own pace, teach skills needed in a modern economy and hold the attention of a generation weaned on gadgets.....more..."
Wow! What a title and story. It really opens up some debate for the validity of using computer technology to assist teaching- how much bang does it give for the buck? Especially when teachers are losing jobs and money spent on technology could be used for teachers. I like to present many sides to a story or issue. I would be mis-informed if I weren't. But to be honest, I am biased towards using technology in education. I wouldn't be in the line of work that I am in if I weren't :-)

One interesting paragraph, read:
"There are times in Kyrene when the technology seems to allow students to disengage from learning: They are left at computers to perform a task but wind up playing around, suggesting, as some researchers have found, that computers can distract and not instruct."

The key point I want to make is that the author writes that computers are to "instruct"...I would argue that computers should not be instructing- people should. Technology should be assisting in the process. Technology does not make a bad teacher good. Just the opposite in fact- it can make a bad teacher worse. No computer can replace a teacher and the human interaction. But technology can enhance the teaching process and engage students and take them places where an overhead projector and chalk cannot. In the modern world, communication and business are done electronically, and students have to be prepared to do this when they join the world after graduating high school.

Teachers Say That Google is the 3rd Best Search Engine???

An interesting article about some research the author did to see what search engine was favored. This is not an exhaustive study, but it did do a good job of talking about the differences between the search engines. 


Dogpile seemed to win...I haven't used this search engine for a while, but it did inspire me to try again. Results were very good! 


Another little-known kid safe-friendly search version of Google that I would like to mention is:  
http://www.kidrex.org/


---------------------
From:
http://www.teach-nology.com/blog/index.php?id=69&p=&search=


Excerpt from the article:
The results were completely surprising.  We expected Google to consistently provide the best web search results.  According to our teachers this was only true 1 out of 7 times.  Bing consistently outperformed Google’s results.

Dogpile, a meta search engine that pulls their results from both Bing and Google, had the best overall ratings.  Dogpile had a knack for always choosing winners from both Bing and Google. Here were our overall results:

5th  Place – Ask

4th Place - Blekko

3rd Place –  Google

2nd Place – Bing

1st Place – Dogpile



While Dogpile did produce consistently great results, please be aware that we just provided our teachers with the organic search results and did not include the ads that they throw in there. If you look at Dogpile’s web site and perform a web search, you will notice that about half of the results are ads. This didn’t sit well with our teachers.

Funding for Public Schools- Shock Doctrine

The Shock Doctrine Case Study: Pennsylvania Public Schools

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-d-slekar/the-shock-doctrine-case-s_b_856053.html

Even though I work overseas, I like to keep a close eye on what is happening with education in the USA. STEM education, keeping our country competitive in the world are all concerns. But funding is a huge issue right now, with public employee benefits and salaries getting decimated in cost-cutting moves by various groups right now. Funding leads to quality teachers which leads to..quality kids. The article above talks about these issues as well as reform measures such as merit pay, vouchers are being looked at. I have been back and forth myself on some of these issues, but the author raises a good point about the actual cost of some of these reform measures including:


The Corbett administration supports funding a voucher system that has been demonstrated not to raise achievement test scores and ends up costing taxpayers more money. Voucher programs are not funded by some magical pot of money. Taxpayers pay for them!
Corbett also wants to develop a grading system for public schools that has the ability to wreak chaos on property values. The governor plans to implement the Keystone exams (exit exams) that national research has shown add nothing to a child's education, and in the state of California is estimated to cost over $500 million dollars a year to administer. Additionally, Corbett wants to create a merit pay system for teachers that will narrow the curriculum, end teacher collaboration and cost taxpayers even more money. As Diane Ravitch recently pointed out, "when the Vanderbilt study of merit pay was published, the U.S. Department of Education immediately released nearly $500 million for -- what else -- more merit-pay programs, and promised that another $500 million would be forthcoming. Data mean nothing when your mind is made up." Therefore, Corbett's plans for public schools will end up costing taxpayers more than the initial $589 million cut.

The point which was most interesting was about merit pay. In a competitive world, it's dog eat dog and teaching has always been and should be non-competitive. It should be collaborative. That is the hallmark of schools in Finland, Singapore, and Canada which consistently have the highest scores around.

If you know that you are being judged according to how your colleagues are performing, and you have a method that consistently keeps your test scores high for your kids, are you going to share it? Doubtful- because then it means you won't get that extra pay because the teacher down the hall now knows the method if you share it with them, and your competition is that much higher. Whose loses out? The kids of course. Good teachers will consistently shine through and share their knowledge. Those that are bad, still won't learn the tricks of the trade, and should and will be washed out of teaching anyway....

More from the article (made some good points about how the public is being "Shocked" into making uninformed decisions...)

In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein pushes the concept of how the public can be manipulated during times of catastrophe or perceived crisis. Lately, it has been argued that the "financial crisis" is being used by market-driven reformers to undermine the public services sector. Specifically, if we look at public education, lawmakers are explicitly telling public schools that they will need to deal with less in the future because of state budget deficits. All of this is done with large support from the citizens because they are "shocked" and believe there is an economic crisis and that any publicly-supported service should be drastically cut to help bring back balanced budgets. Simultaneously, "the shockers" offer rewards in corporate tax cuts and in some cases implement new programs that end up costing the taxpayer more than the proposed cuts....more....