Schools And Tech

SaTP_38_Learning_and_the_Brain_pt._2.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) The World is Obsessed with Facebook, a staggering kinetic typography video on how much the world uses Facebook. - KB2) Negative+Math+Stereotypes=Too few women  TATWomen earned only 18% of all Computer Science degrees and made up less than 25% of the workers in engineering- and computer-related fields in 2009. These statistics stand in stark contrast to the gains they have achieved in law, medicine, and other areas of the workforce.  3) QuickCite  TATScan your books. Rock your world.  Need to cite a reference?Don't worry, we got your back.  Just scan the barcode of a book and receive the citation in your email inbox.Main Topic:   Learning and the Brain Follow-Up A Growing Trend for Dealing with WMDs* in the Classroom: Tech Breaks “If you keep tech away/off for 15 minutes, then we will have a short tech break” - Students don't fret about checking (and surreptitiously try to che

SaTP_37_Learning_and_the_Brain_Conference.mp3 Listen on Posterous 1)   iPad passes Reed College higher ed test  TAT (tuaw.com)Reed College took the Apple iPad for a spin in 2010 and was pleased with the tablet's performance as an educational tool.2) A Dozen or So Reasons I Applaud Lamar High School for Ditching School Library Books by Lisa Nielsen  TAT (Tech&Learning)Librarians, educators, and parents are up in arms after Principal James McSwain of Lamar High School in Houston, Texas ditched many of the books in his library and re-opened the facility as a high-tech Reading / Research Center & Coffee Shop this year.3) Watson wins ‘Jeopardy!’ bout against humans KB http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/02/16/watson-wins-jeopardy-bout-against-humans/Main Topic: Learning and The Brain - iGeneration: How the Digital Age Is Altering Student Brains, Learning & TeachingTim's Tech Tidbit:Home networking, broadband connectivity and NAT (Network Address Translation)

SaTP_#36_Nextvista.org_and_Rushton_Hurley.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week: 1) Introducing TEDbooksWe're thrilled to announce the launch of TEDBooks, an imprint of short nonfiction works designed for digital distribution. Shorter than traditional books, TEDBooks run less than 20,000 words each -- long enough to explain a powerful idea, but short enough to be read in a single sitting. … Does this mean the dumbing down of reading? Actually, we suspect people reading TEDBooks will be trading up rather than down. They'll be reading a short, compelling book instead of browsing a magazine or doing crossword puzzles. Our goal is to make ideas accessible in a way that matches modern attention spans. … TEDBooks are available from Amazon.com as Kindle Singles. They can be purchased for $2.99 each, and can be read on any device equipped with the Kindle app: iPad, Mac, PC, Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows 7 smartphones.Gunn High School in Palo Altohttp://gunnlibrary.tumblr.com/2

SaTP_35_State_of_the_Union.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week: 1) Kevin’s new Chrome Laptop 2) Internet Down in Egypt. Yahoo and Fox News - Thurs pmCAIRO – Internet service in Egypt was disrupted and the government deployed an elite special operations force in Cairo on Friday, hours before an anticipated new wave of anti-government protests.Jeff Jarvis on the Huffington Post  Support for the Disconnected in Egypt 3) Keep All the Top Teachers - OpEd by Michelle Rhee, Sunday (Jan 22) - NYT(toward the end) - In his State of the Union address, President Obama should call for a federal law that would require states to help parents ascertain whether their children are getting the high-quality instruction they need to prepare for college and the work force. Parents who find that their children are not being taught by an effective teacher in a successful school should have the right to vote with their feet by choosing a different school.Now that 12 of the 50 states have laws

SaTP_34_Cal_Leage_of_Schools_PLC_and_Tech_Conference.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the week: 1) In Florida, virtual classrooms with no teachers - NYTimes  MIAMI — On the first day of her senior year at North Miami Beach Senior High School, Naomi Baptiste expected to be greeted by a teacher when she walked into her precalculus class. “All there were were computers in the class,” said Naomi, who walked into a room of confused students. “We found out that over the summer they signed us up for these courses.”Naomi is one of over 7,000 students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools enrolled in a program in which core subjects are taken using computers in a classroom with no teacher. A “facilitator” is in the room to make sure students progress. That person also deals with any technical problems. 2) (On a related note) Bill Gates Says Tech Is The Key to Driving Down College Costs (3 min clip) “trying to provide a $200,000 education to every k

SaTP33.mp3 Listen on Posterous   1) Rethinking Advanced Placement NYTimes - KB“Next month, the board, the nonprofit organization that owns the A.P. exams as well as the SAT, will release a wholesale revamping of A.P. biology as well as United States history — with 387,000 test-takers the most popular A.P. subject. A preview of the changes shows that the board will slash the amount of material students need to know for the tests and provide, for the first time, a curriculum framework for what courses should look like. The goal is to clear students’ minds to focus on bigger concepts and stimulate more analytic thinking. In biology, a host of more creative, hands-on experiments are intended to help students think more like scientists.”2) PBS Newshour - “Is Technology Wiring Teens to Have Better Brains?” - (10 min video) http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june11/digitalbrain_01-05.html  3)  KhanApp Offers Free Education To Go Education on-the-go

SaTP32.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) Teacher Ratings Get New Look, Pushed by a Rich Watcher NYTimes KB2) Rethinking Bullying: Kids Don't See It As Bullying TechDirt TATDanah Boyd, who actually studies social interactions online among young people, recently put up a fascinating post about how kids and adults seem to totally talk past each other on these issues, in large part, because kids don't think of these things as "bullying."3) Edmodo Is a Social Network for Teachers and Students LifeHacker TATEdmodo is a teaching tool modeled after social networks with a focus on communication and not merely distribution of information from the teacher and grade reporting -- Curiously, I just made an account on Friday, based on a recommendation from the PBS gang. Would use it for sure if we didn’t have moodle. -CT4) Legislator Wants to Mandate Homework Help - TribStar - CT An Indiana state legislator intends to introduce a bill to require mandatory homework assignments for early elementary s

SaTP31.mp3 Listen on Posterous Special Guest - Ellen Masten, Academic and College Counselor Pacific Collegiate School News of the Week: 1) A world of misery left by bullying The Boston Globe - KBA dozen years have passed since Anthony Testaverde roamed the halls of Gloucester High School in fear. Yet the 29-year-old remembers the bullying like it was yesterday: the unsupervised locker room that flooded him with terror. The boy who held his arms while another classmate punched him. The day they slammed his head into a metal locker: “Why don’t you just kill yourself?’’ they asked. a growing body of research suggesting that the bullying experience stays with many victims into young adulthood, middle age, and even retirement, shaping their decisions and hindering them in nearly every aspect of life: education and career choices; social interactions and emotional well-being; even attitudes about having children.2) In class, texting is the new doodling AP - KBThe anonymous survey of

SaTP30.mp3 Listen on Posterous Guests Ellen Masten Academic and College Counselor Pacific Collegiate School and Michele Radcliffe, Director of College Counseling at York SchoolNews of the Week:1) Thomas Friedman’s “Teaching For America” Op-Ed piece in Sunday’s NYT Honoring teachers as professionals, preparing & compensating them accordingly; role of parents - The more we demand from teachers the more we have to demand from students and parents. 2) Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction NYTimes Magazine “Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. And the effects could linger: “The worry is we’re raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently.”Allison Miller, 14, sends and receives 27,000 texts in a month, her fi

Schools_and_Tech_29_The_Federal_Ed-Tech_Plan.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) How Kinect Got an Autistic Kid Gaming  (from Gizmodo)GamingNexus editor John Yan has a four-year-old son with a mild form of autism. The little guy's tried to play 360 and PS3 but has trouble getting a hold on the controllers. With Kinect, though, he was an instant pro.2) Electrical Brain Stimulation Improves Math Skills - New Scientist 3) Teacher’s Death Exposes Tensions in Los Angeles - NYT When The Los Angeles Times released a database of “value-added analysis” of every teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District in August, Mr. [Rigoberto ] Ruelas was rated “less effective than average.” Colleagues said he became noticeably depressed, and family members have guessed that the rating contributed to his death. A moderate voice of reason? - “Not including value-added measures is not acceptable,” said Yolie Flores, a board member of the Los Angeles Unified Sc

Schools_and_Tech_28_The_Education_Project.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week: 1) The Truthy Project  TAT  Truthy is a research project that helps you understand how memes spread online. With our images and statistics, you can help identify misuse of Twitter.2) AP History Students in Virginia High School Forbidden to Research Outside Classroom  TATABC News: Students in one Virginia history course will have to take what they learn in the classroom at face value, as their teachers forbid the use of any outside resources, including conversations with their parents.3) Like a monitor more than a tutor KBHomework helpers are part of a growing a niche industry. But educators wonder if this is another facet of “helicopter parenting.”4) Application Inflation - NYT - CTThe numbers keep rising, the superlatives keep glowing. Each year, selective colleges promote their application totals, along with the virtues of their applicants.For this fall’s freshman class, the stat

Schools_and_Tech_27_Waiting_for_Superman.mp3 Listen on Posterous Schools and Tech Podcast Episode #27   News of the Week:1) Cal State Bans Students from Using Online Note-Selling Service  Indeed, the provision of the state education code does some raise questions about intellectual property and the ownership of ideas and course content. If the students don't own their class-notes - or at least, cannot sell them commercially - who does? The professor? The university? The state?2) UK: Every email and website to be stored - UK TelegraphEvery email, phone call and website visit is to be recorded and stored after the Coalition Government revived controversial Big Brother snooping plans.3) Court: No Teacher Speech Rights on Curriculum, from Education Week  - Teachers have no First Amendment free-speech protection for curricular decisions they make in the classroom, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday."Only the school board has ultimate responsibility for what goes on in the class

Schools_and_Tech_#26_Dr._Collins_Rethinking_Education_in_the_Age_of_Technology.mp3 Listen on Posterous Dr. Allan Collins, Professor Emeritus of learning sciences at Northwestern and author of Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America http://allancollins.northwestern.edu/index.html  When we acknowledge that 3-5% of current K-12 students are being home-schooled (and that that number may grow to 15-18% by 2020), that distance and adult education programs are thriving, that growing bodies of knowledge are now available through video and online media, that learning centers like those offered by Kaplan are burgeoning forth and making a mint, we really must accept that learning is changing and that schooling will ultimately evolve as well.  What historically has been the role of education? How is that role changing? What are the gains and losses inherent in moving toward a more technological mode of teaching and learning? What factors accou

SaTP25.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) Bing’s “Our School Needs” contest - prizes up to $100,000 - Deadline Oct 22 2) NYT Pictorial Timeline of The Evolution of Learning Machines3) The demise of XMarks & Bloglines. Where do we go from here?    XmarksPremium Pledge?4) Skype Ideas and Resources  http://techlearning.com/blogs/32874 5) A little dated: Blogpost by Shelly Blake-Plock Increase Student Engagement by Getting Rid of Textbooks  TAT6) On a related note - kno.com - Snazzy but how expensive? - Hardware - Choose from single or dual screen versions that you can write on, highlight on, watch video on. The Kno is stunningly book-like and can display a complete textbook without scrolling. Opens flat like a book or folds back on itself as a single panel slate. - Software - Revolutionary digital note-taking using natural handwriting or a keyboard. Even drag highlights or graphics from your textbook or the web directly into your notes. Write

SaTP24.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits - NYTimes 2) In a New Role, Teachers Move to Run Schools - NYTimesNEWARK — Shortly after landing at Malcolm X Shabazz High School as a Teach for America recruit, Dominique D. Lee grew disgusted with a system that produced ninth graders who could not name the seven continents or the governor of their state. He started wondering: What if I were in charge?       Three years later, Mr. Lee, at just 25, is getting a chance to find out. Today, Mr. Lee and five other teachers — all veterans of Teach for America, a corps of college graduates who undergo five weeks of training and make a two-year commitment to teaching — are running a public school here with 650 children from kindergarten through eighth grade.       3) A Full Year of Algebra Class on Your iPad - Gizmodo ...Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is launching the app, a new Algebra 1 app,

Today on Schools and Tech we’ve got more controversy over teacher evaluations, gender bias in favor of girls and the fate of the complete book in the hands of generation text. Our main topic is service-learning.  SaTP23.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) Method to Grade Teachers Provokes Battle - NYT - CT the value-added modeling system calculates the value teachers add to their students’ achievement, based on changes in test scores from year to year and how the students perform compared with others in their grade.    In value-added modeling, researchers use students’ scores on state tests administered at the end of third grade, for instance, to predict how they are likely to score on state tests at the end of fourth grade.        A student whose third-grade scores were higher than 60 percent of peers statewide is predicted to score higher than 60 percent of fourth graders a year later.     &nb

SaTP22.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week: 1) Later school start times and Zzzs to A'sA growing body of evidence demonstrates that growing bodies benefit from more sleep. When districts push back the start of the school day, good things happen. KB2) TeacherMate - http://www.innovationsforlearning.org/about_teachermate.php  RL3) Monterey College of Law Pilots iPad Programs for Students and Faculty As the centerpiece of a new mobile computing initiative, Monterey College of Law in California is distributing Apple iPads to all students enrolled in a supplemental curriculum program that helps them prepare for the state's bar exam. All entering first-year students signed up for the program within the first week, as did 70 percent of the remainder of the student body. CT4) Oregon State Physics  Class Experiments in Space Design Oregon State University is trying out a new type of classroom for its introductory physics courses, which typically have 75 to 100 students. The sp

SaTP21.mp3 Listen on Posterous   News of the Week:  1) Waiting for Superman http://waitingforsuperman.com 2) Helping autistic children with iOS devices - TUAW - more help for spectrum kids3) A College Student Reviews a Smartpen - NYT - a mixed bag4) Inkling... interactive college etexts for iPad... cool... A unique feature lets you highlight text and create notes which can be shared over the air with fellow students or teachers. Once a note is displayed on another person's iPad, s/he can respond to the note's author. (TUAW) but... Prices start at $2.99 for individual chapters and $69.99 for full textbooks. (SJ Merc) 5) Unplugged Challenge http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/08/02/technology/unplugged.html?ref=t...Main Topic: Social Networking: Personal and ProfessionalFired Teacher Called Students “Germ Bags” on FB - KSBW - (Who could ask for a better lead in to a discussion of social networking at the start of the school year?) On a related note - Good Morning Ameri

SaTP20.mp3 Listen on Posterous Schools and Tech Podcast Episode #20 Shownotes  News of the Week:1) Who's teaching L.A.'s kids?A LA Times analysis, using data largely ignored by LAUSD, looks at which educators help students learn, and which hold them back. 2) ADHD Diagnosis Rate May Vary by Age at School Entry The timing of a child's entry into kindergarten may influence the chances of receiving a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which suggests that some diagnoses are inappropriate, researchers found. 3) Lifehacker article on getting-the-best-free-education-online 4) Encouraging entrepreneurship in schoolshttp://gizmodo.com/5612145/how-a-16+yo-kid-made-his-first-million-dollars-following-his-hero-steve-jobs Main Topic/Tim's Tech Tidbit: a 2 for 1 sale Net Neutrality http://edudemic.com/2010/08/how-and-why-to-teach-about-net-neutrality-right-now/ http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/15_facts_about_net_neutrality_infographic.php Wired Article - Decline of

SaTP19.mp3 Listen on Posterous It's back to school time! News of the Week: 1) And just like that it’s gone? Google Wave development discontinued  TAT2) Civil War History Class as iPad app  TAT3) Putting Our Brains on Hold - NYT op ed by BOB HERBERTAccording to a new report from the College Board, the U.S. is 12th among developed nations in the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees. The report said, “As America’s aging and highly educated work force moves into retirement, the nation will rely on young Americans to increase our standing in the world.”        The problem is that today’s young Americans are not coming close to acquiring the education and training needed to carry out that mission. They’re not even in the ballpark. In that key group, 25- to 34-year-olds with a college degree, the U.S. ranks behind Canada, South Korea, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, Israel, France, Belgium