Half a penny of every federal dollar goes to NASA…
NASA 2014 Budget: More for Asteroids, Less for Planets and Education – BadAstronomy: Continuing the bad news, education takes a big hit, going from $137 million to $94 million, a 33 percent cut.
Shame on us.
I had to wince to make it through this article and visibly groaned when I read this:
Teacher Knows if You’ve Done the E-Reading – NYTimes: “CourseSmart is owned by Pearson, McGraw-Hill and other major publishers, which see an opportunity to cement their dominance in digital textbooks by offering administrators and faculty a constant stream of data about how students are doing.
In the old days, teachers knew if students understood the course from the expressions on their faces. Now some classes, including one of Mr. Guardia’s, are entirely virtual. Engagement information could give the colleges early warning about which students might flunk out, while more broadly letting teachers know if the whole class is falling behind.
Eventually, the data will flow back to the publishers, to help prepare new editions.”
As a teacher, I definitely understand the well meaning intention behind something like CourseSmart. I use Khan Academy a great deal with my 7th grade students for similar intentions.
However, the reason I use Khan for reinforcing math skills we’re discussing or for enrichment is to increase a student’s “number sense” and basic quantitative reasoning skills. We have conversations about their work on Khan, we do track progress a little (though it’s not used as the basis for a grade) and I am able to see where a particular student might be struggling, bored, competent or proficient on certain math skills that we’re covering. It’s a handy tool just like worksheets or pencil and paper. In the end, my job as a teacher is to converse with each student and see where they are in their math work on an individual basis. Khan along with many other tools helps me do that more authentically. I don’t “helicopter” students but want them to realize that they can take charge of their own learning for learning’s wonderful sake.
Khan, Code Academy, iTunes U, Coursera etc have made me a much better teacher over the last three years because I fundamentally believe that conversation (meaning more than verbal but conversation in the truest sense of the word possible) with an individual student is still the best test.
Nonetheless, what CourseSmart is doing from a teaching point of view is taking something like reading and making it into a quantitative model of “engagement.” Rather than a student being able to engage with material that suits them best, they’re being pigeon holed into an algorithmic expectation of highlighting and note taking in a way that up-ends the teaching process. Services like CourseMart are yet another example that boxed one-size fits all education at any level does not work.
Plus, the connection to corporate edu is so disturbing. Pearson and McGraw-Hill have become the Facebook and Google of education with their takeover of the education cloud.
This about sums it up…
Would love your help if you’re able.
Find out more on the StudiesLab site.
In early June I’ll wish my 7th graders godspeed and wrap up my time at Carolina Day School. It will be a bittersweet day (and next few months) but I’m excited about the remaining time I have with my students and colleagues to learn and grow in the halls (and on the many stairs) of Stephens.
I have so much love for my two years of students there. Both my current 7th graders and the now 8th grade group have taught me more than they’ll ever know about life and I’ll be eternally thankful to have spent a couple of rotations around our closest star learning about the universe with them.
Similarly, my colleagues are amazing people and teachers. I love our Middle School team and am so thankful to have been in their presence the last two years (smelly “workhole” and all). Our 7th grade team is the best group of folks I’ve ever worked with and their daily inspiration and talent is beyond words. It’s hard to think of leaving at this point because we’re firing on all cylinders and really hitting harmonies and resonant frequencies as a team. I’ll never forget the real excitement that they make me feel for teaching and especially learning.
However, it is the time for me to move on professionally. As I told Peggy Daniels, our Middle School Head, today, “I’m really good at working with people but not so good at working for people”.
My views and philosophy on education necessitate that I follow a different path. I’m not exactly sure what that looks like (“the woods are lovely dark and deep”). Yet I know that drive will take me and my career down a road that is still covered in snow because I have miles to go before I sleep (beg pardon of Robert Frost there).
So what’s next? I have a couple of interviews at exciting local schools but I also have the nagging persistence of StudiesLab.
It’s a business plan and educational model I’ve had written for years in my head (and on paper) of decentralized, cooperative and authentic education based not on 19th century content delivery for Victorian factory workers but on current research aimed at producing world changers. A place for round pegs in a world of square holes. A prayer for hope and humility and learning.
Or something like that.
Regardless, it’s time to plant sequoias.
Really exciting to see this type of thing develop (especially from the fine folks at WooThemes using the venerable WordPress platform):
Sensei from WooThemes: “Google is working on an online course solution. Same story with Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, and … you? If you run a website that uses WordPress, you can now easily (relatively) build your very own online school.”
via edudemic
We’re in for a major sea change that has to be scary not just to independent education outlets but also colleges and universities that “get it” when it comes to what’s around the corner.
That’s why Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT etc are working so hard to secure their footholds in this brave new world of education and learning. Sadly, k-12 independent schools aren’t seeing the light just yet.
How would this work in a classroom (or even faculty meeting)?
What is Amazon’s approach to product development and product management? – Quora: “It’s not uncommon to attend meetings at Amazon that begin with everybody sitting in silence for the first 5-10 minutes reading a document.”
Pretty well, I imagine.
Getting things done is all about culture.
From one of my bosses (and an awesome person) @John_S_Douglas:
Are textbooks standing in the way of success? twitter.com/John_S_Douglas…
— John Douglas (@John_S_Douglas) January 14, 2013
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Tomorrow are the finals 🙂
I’m terrible at writing in cursive. I was in the hospital for a chunk of time during first and second grades when my public school taught the majority of cursive writing techniques (I’ll never forget the worksheets I had to do). Luckily, it didn’t hold me back much.
I understand the “kinesthetic benefits” of learning with cursive, however I do wonder…
Great comments and discussion on this Ask Reddit thread about cursive education:
AskReddit: “Do you think that cursive writing education should be replaced by typing education for 1-2nd graders?”
Khan Academy | What software program / equipment is use…:
“Sal uses a PC with:
- Camtasia Recorder ($200*)
- SmoothDraw3(Free)
- Wacom Bamboo Tablet ($80)
My students and I have been using Khan Academy videos to help us in our studies of pre-Algebra over the past fall. While there have been some kinks and bumps, the experience has been amazing from a teacher and learner point of view.
Mostly, the pause button is the most revolutionary thing to happen in education in a long while. The ability to have classroom discussions, collaborative problem solving and real in-class learning combined with independent and self-paced skills work have changed how I teach (and learn).
Over the holiday break, I’ve been making a few “Khan” style videos to go along with presentations (lectures) I’m giving on a few more complicated subjects (such as some Astronomy and celestial mechanics topics) for my 7th grade students at Carolina Day School this spring.
Someone asked about my setup, so here’s what I’m using:
($65 on Amazon)I’ll post up a few when I’m done with a series but have been impressed with the Bamboo tablet and experience so far. Pretty painless and enjoyable!
One of my favorite pages on Wikipedia (and yes, our planet is going to get real interesting in a few hundred thousand years):
Timeline of the far future – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “Due to its northward movement along the San Andreas Fault, the Californian coast begins to be subducted into the Aleutian Trench. Africa will have collided with Eurasia, closing the Mediterranean Basin and creating a mountain range similar to the Himalayas.”
My 7th grade students frequently ask me how humanity will do with the sun going supernova and all in about 5 billion years. I remind them we’ve got bigger problems much much sooner than that (climate change, rising sea levels, gamma ray bursts, meteorite strikes etc).
Carl Sagan was, as usual, spot on about our pale blue dot. So let’s do the best we can with the time/space we have, while we can.
via Kottke.org
