education & tech

Education & Tech a Nominee as One of the 'Top 100 Language Blogs 2009'

2009-07-14T19:44:00.007-04:00

"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358467836956398914" /> On June 22, 2009 LexioPhiles called for nominations of the Top 100 Language Blogs 2009. Since then, we've been kindly reminded that Education & Tech was among those nominated under the category 'Language Technology'

education & tech - http://www.miltonramirez.com/ <-- This is how you will see our site highlighted, scrolling down to middle of the voting page.

Marc Lütten, the person behind LexioPhiles says, they have received 473 nominations for the top 100 language blog 2009 competition. For each category, they have admitted 100 blogs into the voting phase.

The 50% of the final score will be based on user voting. So, we are asking your support to make to the finals on July 28. Voting just started today and winners will be announced July 30.

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Duncan Has to Explain Why He Did Hype Inflated Test Scores

2009-07-13T20:12:00.002-04:00

The Civic Committee of The Commercial Club of Chicago, a supporter of Duncan, revealed its research (pdf doc) results which has key findings about contradictory Chicago schools reports issued by Obama and Duncan.

The report's findings are "reminiscent of revelations from Houston in 2003, when state investigators found that 15 high schools had under reported dropout rates under former superintendent Rod Paige, who by then was George W. Bush's Education secretary."

And to refresh your memory, the USA Today continues: "In December, Obama said that during a seven-year tenure, Duncan had boosted elementary school test scores "from 38% of students meeting the standards to 67%" — a gain of 29 percentage points. But the new report found that, adjusting for changes in tests and procedures, students' pass rates grew only about 8 percentage points."

Should we assume the President was misinformed again?

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10 Free Site Exploration for Teachers

2009-07-11T14:47:00.004-04:00

I haven't being able to compile large lists of online resources in order the post them here in Education & Tech. Despite of spending lengthy periods of time filtering and collecting information, I have almost never published lists as today we pretend. Most of our collection are laid on Delicious, Diigo and Twitter

The following are few of our recommended websites to explore and learn along other colleagues and students, in no particular order. If you are a teacher find a way they can help you seed your curriculum in some way, enhance your website, or even inspire you:

1. Easy Test Maker - Is a free online test generator to help you create your tests. You can create multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, short answer and true and false questions all on the same test. You can also insert instructions and divide your test into multiple sections.

2. Etherpad - This is a shared writing pad tool. Start a new writing pad, then send the address of it to anyone you want to collaborate with. You both can write on a document, chat about it, brainstorm together, etc. It’s not a word processor but a collaborative tool to work on something together.

3. Shortyawards - Useful now that many educators and specialists use Twitter. Search who is professionally 'tweeting' in Education or find more Teachers on Twitter.

4. Wetpaint - If you’ve considered blogging or wiki-ing but haven’t gotten started yet, check out Wetpaint. It is a very accessible Wiki site that resembles a web page and is easy to use and edit, with a nice layout and design.

5. Pivot Stickfigure - A great free tool that my son still loves. It is a very simple yet smart piece of software that allows students to animate a stickman using a frame by frame technique. A good supplement to those boys who love anime and manga fighting.

6. Teacher Led - Teacher Led offers a large collection of interactive white board resources and games on one of the subjects most teachers and students have concerns, math.

7. Learner.org - Explode your video library resources. Use qualified sites to fulfill your video cabinet with thousands of professional clips to enforce class concepts. I know it is not the only one, but it is run by professionals.

8. Merlot - Here teachers post their lessons and then get reviewed by peers. Covering all content areas, you can dig into high caliber lesson material for your new lesson or to revise an existing one.

9. Phonevite – It is an award-winning voice broadcasting service that sends out free phone reminders and alerts. You can send these reminders to yourself or to students, colleagues, and parents. One alternative is Google Voice.

10. Free Tech 4 Teachers – This is a blog specialized on tech in the classroom. Not long ago I turned onto this site, which has excellent new tools featured constantly, and serious lessons attached to the posts.

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Social Media in the Classroom

2009-07-08T18:59:00.003-04:00

This post was contributed by Tara Miller, who writes about the online teaching degrees. She welcomes your feedback at TaraMillerr00 at yahoo dot com

Many high school teachers have recently opted for keeping their homework assignments and grades online, making full use out of the many social media mediums that have infiltrated their students’ lives. The increase in Twitter usage has additionally opened up a new outlet for teachers to post revisions to homework assignments (given that their students check their site daily), as well as keep in contact during extended breaks.

Social media has led to a new form of communication and thereby a new realm in which to educate students. With the easy accessibility of this advent in technology, teachers and students are able to trade information between each other through a much easier forum, even allowing students to work from home on days where they cannot attend class. This has been seen frequently on college campuses throughout the years, albeit in a different format, but has picked up among high schools around the nation. As a high school teacher, you undoubtedly have learned that your students are Facebooking, Twittering, and MySpacing throughout the day, so why not incorporate learning into it as well? While they may have to create a separate account or “block” you from seeing certain things, your students in your advanced and upper level classes can take advantage of this newfound technology by quizzing themselves on your sites or similar methods.

These types of social networking sites are not the only way in which to apply social media to your teaching methods. Building a blog can additionally be a way in which to reach out to your students beyond the classroom, and provide a way to assist them with homework. Having a blog for every class and subject you teach can be a different and beneficial way to teach a subject in this technological age. Social media has provided this generation within an enhanced way to communicate, thereby knocking down previous barriers or block which made it difficult. Those students who are avid learners and wish to know more about every subject will be the ones who will benefit the most from a classroom blog; it will allow them to either navigate away to other links, or simply figure out your opinion on the particular event. With this method of communication, your class will grow closer together and you will be able to reach out to the entire audience, even hear the input of students who may be shy to speak in front of class. As a teacher, most social media sites have provided you with an exciting new way to enhance your teaching and fully penetrate your students’ minds.

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Professional Development Is a Waste for Teachers

2009-07-07T18:00:00.003-04:00

Before July 4th I went to the public library in the neighborhood and picked a book by Christopher Witt: Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint I always thought a teacher has to be a good speaker and needs to know how to sell his/her image and ideas. I am not going to comment on the book but I am trying to connect the role of leaders explained in this book with two post in Why Do You Ask a blog written by Ric Murry

Murry wrote a interesting post (sadly without any comments yet)on why he knows teachers aren't any good today. No even after NECC09. Ric Murry says that, "Schools have become breeding grounds for experiments for businesses, vendors, college professors, or publishers to make quick turnkey money by convincing teachers that they are not capable of doing their job without constantly changing how they do their job."

In other words, all the time a teacher spends attending Professional Development(PD) doesn't go beyond a "systemic indoctrination". Classroom teachers -there are teachers doing business independently- no longer believe they are able to lead without someone telling them what to do. The energy teachers have when they start working vanish, after a period of time we all become followers rather than leaders.

Of course, this image, aura and conduct is quickly perceived by students, who "feel the energy we project, they will seek to become the class 'leader' because the one thing they have learned for sure is that their teachers will not know how to lead them.", continues Murry.

Christopher Witt writes in his book that leaders (teachers to this matter) have to match their message to their reputation but most importantly, they have to imitate no one! Teachers are to be unique and use their natural enthusiasm and knowledge to shine through. Be a highly effective teacher!

Until we continue being the 'social animal' of which Cesar Millan speaks, being referenced by Ric Murry in his post, teachers will be waiting for someone else to tell them what to do, how to do it, when to do it. Classroom teachers can do better, no matter if they still have to go to the PDs; otherwise "districts that provide system-wide, school-wide, department-wide PD [will] waste the time of teachers, the money of the tax-payers, and deteriorate the internal motivation of their best teachers."

What wish you can do to be a better teacher and stop being a follower only?

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20 Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom

2009-07-04T09:55:00.003-04:00

Much buzz has been receiving the uses of the iPod Touch in the classroom lately. However, Skype is too, a free and easy way for teachers to open up their classroom and their students to a world way beyond their campus. With Skype, students can learn from other students, connect with other cultures, and expand their knowledge in amazing ways. Teachers and parents can also benefit from Skype in the classroom(vid).

Follow the link below to learn how you can take advantage of the power of Skype in your classroom, particularly the two section under: Promoting Education and Skype Ideas for Teachers and Parents

Photo: Skype with Iceland.

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Digital Age: The Future of Learning

2009-07-03T07:29:00.004-04:00

We woke early today and started browsing the most recent tweets. We came across to an interesting report, licensed under Creative Commons: The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age by Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg with the assistance of Zoë Marie Jones. The discovering of this study was possible thanks to Jasom Flom.

Thanks to funding from the MacArthur Foundation, both report's authors, "investigate the internet’s transformation of shared and interactive learning. They suggest the following 10 principles as 'fundamental to the future of learning institutions' as Flom writes in his post.

These are the 10 Principles for the Future of Learning:

1. Self Learning.
2. Horizontal Structures.
3. From Presumed Authority to Collective Credibility.
4. A De-Centered Pedagogy.
5. Networked Learning.
6. Open Source Education.
7. Learning as Connectivity and Interactivity.
8. Lifelong Learning.
9. Learning Institutions as Mobilizing Networks.
10. Flexible Scalability and Simulation.

We think these principles would be the Decalogue of all teachers. Special attention has to be put on #s 3, 6 and 9. Is it a coincidence that we've selected all multiple of three?

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White House CTO: Uses of Technology in Pedagogy at Heart of Education Reform

2009-07-02T21:36:00.002-04:00

The Journal:

"Technology is core and essential to the strategies we are using to reform education." That was the message from both Jim Shelton, assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement at the United States Department of Education, and Aneesh Chopra, chief technology officer in the White House.

Sitting comfortably in overstuffed chairs on stage at a packed meeting of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), these two top Obama administration representatives spoke and responded to questions for 45 minutes about the importance of technology in education.

Chopra said that technology in education is less about hardware and software and more about what we teach, the method in which we teach it, and professional development and support for educators. He emphasized the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and the need for greater access to digital content. Whenever he gets a chance, Chopra has his iPod plugged in his ears tapping lectures from MIT, Stanford, and other sources. It is about having a constant "learning environment," he said.

Read the rest of the article by Geoffrey H. Fletcher

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Education & Tech 07/01/2009

2009-07-01T04:27:00.002-04:00

NECC ‘09: Blogging Best Practices

Decisions about your blog: Is it transportable? Where are you going to host it? What’s the policy (your policy) on comments? What’s my school’s policy on sharing? What topics will I cover? Is it under Creative Commons? Should I have a group blog? what colors, designs and templates should I use?

Great iTouch Apps for Primary Students

Yesterday here at NECC I learned about three fantastic applications for younger / primary age students from an Australian teacher who has 8 iPod Touches in her classroom currently

Taste of Tech - Your Daily Dose of Digital Delicacies

On the bloggers’ cafe and how amazed was John Schinker to keep running into EdTech celebrities

NECC09 (Day 3) - New NETS, New Resources | Technology Times

In this session, ISTE gave some folks an opportunity to showcase their products that had earned the ISTE Seal of Alignment.

Writing in the 21st Century @ NECC09

Kathleen Blake Yancey wrote this great piece about writing in the 21st century, so I was not going to miss this session! How is literacy different now?

Can public schools fundamentally reinvent themselves?

You can't have innovation in instruction without innovation of assessment (to which David Jakes pointed out that the curriculum then needed to change too)- Until we see a model that described an educated person in a variety of ways we are going to continue to have problems

Transferring Students Hinders Achievement

Student transfers are students who are transferred from one class and teacher to another class and teacher within a school year. Interrupting a students schedule and flow with one teacher causes the student to lose focus on the material.

Edubloggercon 2009 Notes and Reflections

I learned and shared and questioned and pondered. It was a wonderful day. I have a hard time believing that the actual NECC conference (for which I am paying big bucks) will live up.

The rest of my favorite links are here.

10 Sites You Should Read Before the NECC09 Ends

2009-06-29T20:10:00.007-04:00

On Sunday, I did enjoyed listening Malcolm Gladwell’s keynote. Other interesting streaming I was watching was Copyright Confusion by Renee Hobbs. Unfortunately, today I wasn't able to follow interesting conversations particularly about the uses of iPhone/iPod in the classroom as to what was the percentage of this gadgets to present in a classroom to work effectively with students; or Scott Floyd's talk about Wordpress favorite plug-ins.

In exchange, I am going to refer some of the blogs that are posting and giving updates about the NECC09:

Copy Paste by Peter Pappas. In his post he explains about a new tool called StreamGraph that he is using to visualize the latest 1000 tweets which contain the search word 'NECC'

Digital Education by Katie Ash & Kathleen Kennedy Manzo. Today Katie reports on the state of policy and practice related to education technology addressed by Don Knezek, ISTE's CEO.

Andrew B. Watt's Blog The Connecticut history teacher has permanent updates. The most recent post reflects about a the kids’ virtual world Quest Atlantis, a conference call from Australia.

Reflexions by Susan van Gelder. She goes over Steve Dembo's session. Susan do accept that she is not using Bloglines anymore but summarize what she grab in this session about social web tools.

TechChicks by Helen (techchick) & Anna( digimom). These two young Texans are live blogging the NECC09. At session From Information Literacy to Information Leadership. they were lucky enough to talk to Will Richardson just before he took off back home.

Teachers R Learning by Peej. She fills in what we missed on Gladwell's keynote. Makes a wrap up, noting among other things: "Failure isn't failure. It's learning."

EdTechTalk. See and hear edtechtalk "celebrities". Also watch video and script of Lisa Parisi (Cruise) with EdTechTalkers at the NECC Bloggers Cafe.

Design for Learning by Dean Groom. Voice his frustrations as many other participants felt today, retorting: "How on earth does anyone expect to convince anyone that the internet in education is not a black hole. Lack of power outlets, seating and now internet for ‘third space’ informal learning simply wrote off my day."

Examiner by Elaine Plybon. She couldn't make it to the NECC this year. However, she is found the time to write about 5 new tech tools that keep her busy for awhile and without even going to Washington.

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Washington: After the First Day on NECC09

2009-06-28T07:02:00.004-04:00

As a preamble to what is coming, yesterday started the EdubloggerCon. This unique experience has been organized by Steve Hargadon. The EduBlogger Conference is the 3rd time has been organized for free, and Dr Leigh Zeitz thinks there were 200 attendees.

Today is the 2nd. day of NECC09 and there will be many formal and informal discussions at the National Educational Computing Conference in Washington about how to turn K-12 schools into more digitally friendly learning environments in tough budget times.

I was following the event through Twitter. It was a great day. However, I still have an unanswered question. Kathy Schrock was in a session discussing her Wikipedia bias and I still don't know why she thinks so.

Dr. Z. was at k12onlineconference.org and does a wrap up of what he saw yesterday. Por example, Jeff Uteckt leading discussion, Is blogging really dead?

If you are 'lucky' enough to have the time and money to attend NECC, do you have any responsibility because of that privilege? Scott Meech wants to know, what is your responsibility? At his smeech.net he also list some of his responsibilities that may help improve NECC:

Sunday will be a even better day in Washington and if you aren't able to make it check NECC Live

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The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teachers

2009-06-26T13:36:00.006-04:00

Much has been written about headlines and how that way we present it has a deep impact on the attention visitors and readers pay to such an article. And this is one of those cases, deliberately I chose the headline, paraphrasing the popular The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, a business self-help book.

But what makes teachers highly effective?

We should start with two basic premises: Teachers are facilitators and not entertainers even though occasionally have to play that role. The second point to have in mind is that learners are not anymore the passive subject who only listens, new technologies put students in charge of the information they access, they are able to save, reformat and share it.

TESConnect has a list of 7 Secrets Behind Great Teaching. They explain how along Crelos, a business psychologists, they went to analyse the "personalities, motivations and behaviour of 15 award-winning teachers to uncover the seven habits that make them successful in the classroom."

Secrets effective teachers put into practice:

1. They build confidence

2. They’re not afraid to make difficult decisions

3. They develop others

4. They’re good communicators

Proud

5. They’re non-conformists

6. They thrive in the company of others

7. They see the bigger picture

For those of you already in the classroom, or those thinking of entering the field of teaching and education, this is a reminder of what it takes to be a success. Not only for your personal benefit but our students, for the benefit of our country.

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Teacher’s Total Years of Experience vs. How Much Time He Has Taught a Particular Grade

2009-06-26T08:58:00.004-04:00

There are two paragraphs that really grabbed our attention on this post. As Barnett Berry puts it, lets get real about teacher experience and its effects on student achievement:

For your delight, this the most significant defense of experienced teachers I ever read (stressed section is ours):

teacher experience beyond three years does not matter much for standardized test scores.

We should pay attention to 'separated' experience. It's also important we consider the "teacher gropus:"

As we consider and design research, we need to pay attention not only to an individual teacher’s aggregate years of experience but how groups of teachers have used their combined knowledge over time to change the working culture of their team (or department or grade level), share teaching expertise among themselves and with others, and connect more closely with their students and their families.
I've learned that in America, experience is one of the most valuable assets a person can own, but it seems that when we talk about teaching that same over valued experience does not weight in!

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NECC09: How Are You Going to Participate?

2009-06-26T06:40:00.004-04:00

Tania Sheko brought up this question on Twitter. What's the best way to follow NECC online? (@taniasheko) and we want to go over it. Not all of us can afford to go, but would still like to participate.

So without further introduction let me tell you that Jennifer Ragan-Fore has created http://www.neccning.org/ where participants are gathering to get info about the coming conference.

There is also a Virtual NECCers group created by Scott Merrick where he updates you that "Joe Corbett of the ISTE Connects team has just posted a call for ideas about what that team should share during NECC09 via streaming video! This seems the perfect group to respond. Get on over to his post and add to the discussion there!"

Although there are over a hundred of conference bloggers registered, with the use streaming video (up to the discretion of the session leaders) those who can make it still can participate. We hope in next years the organizer consider this situation.

On Wednesday we posted a Tweet over the 5 Tips to a successful NECC and it seemed to me that many liked. On this article the author suggest two terms we should use as #hashtags on Twitter: NECC and NECC09 and even explains how we should refine our search to be in the right place at the right time.

Elaine Roberts (@elainej) of Freestyle Pen is eager to be on board and also has promised to share some events using coveritlive

Do you know of other people who may be streaming the event during these days. Please help others interested in following virtually the conference

*Update*

Thanks to http://www.necc2008.org and we've find other way around to follow NECC09:

- The NECC 'UNPLUGGED' will stream all its sessions (on-site and virtual) live through Elluminate.

- Use serach option at the main site and look for sessions that are web cast.

- Apple too, will be posting podcasts of the keynotes.

- Fond of Second Life? Here are some rooms.

- ITSE Vision rocks!

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NECC09: Conference Bloggers

2009-06-24T22:26:00.003-04:00

2¢ Worth

A common feature of some of the most successful Web 2.0 applications is their simplicity, and nothing has demonstrated this more than blogging. Blogger.com, a free blogging platform from Pyra Labs, was launched on August 23, 1999.1 Suddenly, anyone with access to a computer and the Internet, and the slightest typing skills, could publish to the world — for free. Type the title of your article into a textbox, type your article, click [Publish], and your words are available to a global readership. The simplicity is its power and its impact has been profound.

Many people at NECC will be blogging. 129 people have already registered with the NECC web site as conference bloggers. Many more will be blogging more casually, simply as a way of recording their experience and notes about what they are learning, for their own record or to share with colleagues at home.

Read complete article at David Warlick's Blog and do not forget to check out the 5 Tips to a successful NECC.

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Blogs Have 'Minimal Impact on Student Learning'

2009-06-23T06:53:00.001-04:00

You might notice that lately I am not writing much on Education & Tech. For those concerned allow me to tell you that our time is quite short by now, this is one of the reason you are to read only quotes or reproduction of good content. Hopefully, I will be back with original content once I sort it out all personal stuff I am into.

I barely have time to read our subscriptions. However, following Google reader suggestions I've landed on Adventures in Educational Blogging . Susan Sedro, a tech coordinator for an international school in Singapore points out something we think educators should give it a second thought:

Currently, in the primary and intermediate schools, teachers were required to have a web page. In years gone by, this took a ridiculous amount of their time considering its minimal impact on student learning. A few teachers really excelled and it because a hub for the classroom. For most, it was a true burden; something that weighed them down.

Sedro says it's just about time to go from web pages to web 2.0! It surely is when still some professionals struggle to learn how to design a web page using Microsoft Front Page. No that the application i bad but we do have other platforms to set up a blog quickly. It may be a reason why some teachers still think weblogs are used by people who has no other thing to do. Wrong. Blogs are web sites that have a great impact on student learning. Of course, they need to learn first how to use it productively and how to create and share knowledge.

Wisely, my principal is not mandating that teachers have any web presence. Teachers are very busy and for some, none of those tools fit their teaching style and needs. I suspect others will end up using many different web tools with a blog for communication, a wiki for student projects, and other tools, such as Voicethreads pulled in where appropriate.

This conclusion, is in the best interest for teachers. Abandon old tools and get prepared to the jump onto the web 2.0. No matter if you use a blog or a wiki or any other social tool for this matter, what it counts is that you know the nuts and bolts of these tools and are not afraid to use it either at school or in your professional or personal life

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The iPod Octopus in the Classroom

2009-06-22T20:48:00.005-04:00

EdTechBytes:

This post comes handy now that we all are using the new iPhone and updated the current version of our iPod Touch.

Implementing the iPod Touch in a PC Only environment without an Apple iPod Touch cart using only free apps requires us to problem solve some challenges.

The teacher synchs all iPods through a single iTunes Account.

A good teacher provisions for everything that happens in the classroom, so determining, modeling, and coordinating a synching procedure for 29 students is very important. For example, how often will the teacher synch the iPods? When will this occur? Which students go first? How will the students get their iPods back? What will the students be doing when the teacher is entangled in those wires trying to synch?

For the other possible challenges a classroom teacher is confronted with the iPod Touch in a classroom visit Patrick Ledesma's original article.

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Oxford Debate at NECC 2009

2009-06-20T18:33:00.005-04:00

We are so close to the NECC 2009, Washington DC, June 28 -July 1, 2009. There is a topic for the Oxford debate at NECC 2009 under the theme Bricks and Mortar Schools are Detrimental to the Future of Education.

They are receipting questions for this debate. You can also summit yours, after proper registration. Click here to join in. The following are the top 7 questions so far:

1. How would losing the physical meeting place affect those coming from unstable home environments?

2. What will the end brick and mortar schools mean for the socialization of students?

3. How might a shift to online education affect the current and future workforce of teachers?

4. Is pounding down the ‘brick and mortar’ the only way to change instruction or pedagogical practices?

5. Why not expand school services and school day, incorporating education into the fabric of life?

6. How are you going to motivate those students than don't do anything on their own?

7. Is face to face interaction completely dead?

The order eventually may change because we are still one week away from the National Education Computing Conference 2009.

Update [06/26/09]

As we believed the order has changed and there is a huge amount of questions to be addressed right now:

a.(3) How might a shift to online education affect the current and future workforce of teachers?

b. (2) Rremains in the 2nd position.

c. (6) How are you going to motivate those students than don't do anything on their own?

d. How would losing the physical meeting place affect those coming from unstable home environments? (This is a new question ranked high)

e.(5) Why not expand school services and school day, incorporating education into the fabric of life.

f.(4) Is pounding down the ‘brick and mortar’ the only way to change instruction or pedagogical practices?

g. Does online education meet the needs for all considering many ages, abilities, and learning styles? (Completely new)

The other three mos prominent questions are:

- Rethinking the traditional desk, what adaptations might make the workstation relevant in the future?
- After #IranElection, Twitter, & US State Dept situation: Are social media blocks being reconsidered?
- In what ways can we make technology accessible for all students, regardless of socioeconomic status?

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CEP: NCLB Focus on Proficiency Is Shortchanging Students

2009-06-18T19:39:00.005-04:00

CEP (Center on Education Policy) has released an analysis to answer: Is the Emphasis on “Proficiency”Shortchanging Higher- and Lower-Achieving Students? (pdf doc). The study shows good news for the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) policy.

Sean Cavanagh of Education Week is among the few who picked the study and states the following:

The 50-state analysis found that test scores for both "advanced" and "basic" students rose in nearly three-quarters of assessments studied across states and grade levels, a level of progress only slightly lower than that of students reaching proficiency.

The study sought to examine a story line put forward in recent years—namely, that schools are not focusing on the highest- or lowest-scoring students, but rather on middle achievers, said Jack Jennings, the president of the Center on Education Policy, which produced the report.

While the progress of high and low achievers could be stagnating in individual instances or schools, the study indicates that on average, those students are advancing...

On the other hand, Andrew Rotherham asks: 'Is it too cynical to think it would be bigger news if it went the other way?' Rotherham wrote an entry at eduwonk.com to comment why so few had taken on the news today.

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Americans Students Are Underworked

2009-06-16T20:50:00.005-04:00

It is not a statement we can sustain because we do know that is only half true. Statistics not always supports evidently an argument. This is the case for The Economist. They subscribe to the idea that American students are underworked and compare hours class with those from Germany, Paris and Asia.

They suggest students are not paired with those in other countries because they do not attend full round year of school. But forgo to mention American students are underchallenged, it is not because they aren’t spending enough time in school!

They also suggest that these three months off in Summer act like a "mental eraser, with the average child reportedly forgetting about a month’s-worth of instruction in many subjects and almost three times that in mathematics.” Even whether these same students attend summer school or go for remedial classes, they will forget what they learn in the last 30 days!

It is heard a lot that Asian school are the super model, speaking of school success. Lets read what a Korean under the name of ME commented at Joanne Jacobs blog, about this article:

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How Technology is Transforming Public Schools

2009-06-15T22:45:00.003-04:00

Interesting how Hon. George Miller and The House Education and Labor Committee will be holding a hearing tomorrow, Tuesday, June 16 to examine how technology and innovative education tools are transforming and improving education in America.

Full Committee Hearing at 10:00 AM, June 16, 2009 2175 Rayburn H.O.B Washington, DC

Witnesses include school district technology officers, industry leaders, and a middle-school science teacher. For more information, or to view streaming video of the hearing, visit the Education & Labor committee website.

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Duncan: Teachers Should Be Judged on Student Performance

2009-06-13T20:54:00.004-04:00

It has been said that Secretary Duncan was successful with implementation of merit pay in Chicago. However, I would like to ask the Secretary what it should be done with those students who simply don't want to be at school. Teachers and parents both know, the story of rebel teens who prefer to do another stuff that go to school and in the worse case scenario, youngsters who are not able to self-control or even be disciplined by parents themselves. Will this group of students hurt teachers merit pay? Absolutely.

During this week the AP ran a story about the controversial practice of linking raises or teacher's bonuses to student achievement. Of course, with the simple experience related on top, it is normal that Duncan's proposal be opposed by many teachers' union members. We do agree that test scores alone should not decide a teacher's salary, but other parameters as research and publication of books, should be also considered, to mention just two.

States and school districts will compete later this year for a piece of a $5 billion fund to reward those that adopt innovations the Obama administration supports. Applications will be available in July, and money should be awarded starting early next year.

In several districts around the country including Chicago, where Duncan ran the public schools, merit pay systems have been created with support from teachers' unions. Duncan aims to gain the support of teachers saying "he wants it done with teachers, not to teachers." Is this the rigor he is asking for?

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Time to Kill 'No Child Left Behind'

2009-06-11T20:00:00.004-04:00

It is too late to tweak NCLB. Seven years after it was signed into law, it is clear that the program deserves to be buried.

Diane Ravitch of Education Week wrote a great piece about the No Child Left Behind policy, and how in the long run no even time 'can repair this poorly designed law':

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Dumb Generation? Teens Are Just as Smart as They Ever Were

2009-06-09T21:07:00.005-04:00

The USA Today commented on two books related to the digital age of Gen Y (ages 16-29). The first book is The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future by Mark Bauerlein.

Bauerlein an English professor at Emory University in Atlanta, claims in his book that young generation have acquired skills not being useful in the marketplace, and that they've lost track of human ways to relate to unknown people. The author recommends to parents to: "Talk with your kids. Kids can't do this by themselves."

In the other hand is Gary Small, director of the Center of Aging at the University of California- L.A. and co-author of iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind. And this is the posture we take part in. Small asserts clearly that, "teens are just as smart as they ever were."

Multitasking for example, creates a barrier between the old and new generations. The Gen Y may be good with technology but weak in face-to-face communication but still they interact with no prejudices. This young generation, familiar with MySpace and Facebook, is just as smart as any adult but in different ways. Small concludes: "In some ways (technology) is hindering, in some ways it's advancing" education, and adds, "It teaches our brain a different way of processing things."

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Impacts of a 2008-2010 Recession in Children's Well Being

2009-06-08T19:11:00.003-04:00

The Early Ed Watch Blog:

A report released this morning, shows that children's well-being started to decline last year and is expected to dip to its lowest point in 2010, when many economists believe the full impact of the recession will be felt.

It projects that next year 21 percent of children will be in poverty and 28 percent will not have at least one full-time working parent. The median income for all families will drop to $55,700. Single-parent households led by fathers will be hardest hit.

The economic downturn will ripple across other domains as well, according to the report, causing breakdowns in community ties (driven by unemployment or housing crises) and family structure (due to an expected uptick in divorce rates). Fewer children at 3 and 4 will be enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs, and violent crime will likely increase. The number of children reporting good health is expected to dip (with obesity rates increasing due in part to a reliance on less healthy foods), but government health insurance policies should lessen the economy's ill effects.

Read more on the report by Lisa Guernsey

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