Category: Education

Article Review – How many penguins does it take to sink an Iceberg

The article above was found on Scribd, and is a report from an Irish teacher about the state of education and the possible/perceived/hoped impact of web 2.0.  Overall the article is well put together and poses some interesting points.

The gist is that web 2.0 is more in line with how students interact with the world today, so it should be used in education (page 6-7).  Making a concession to the methods of students could promote better learning outcomes, etc. because we’re meeting them on their ‘playing field’.  I agree and have often touted the benefits of using good instruction in learning management systems because students are used to playing online, it’s not a hard stretch to believe they would also succeed at learning online.  However, my assertion is flawed: terrible instruction in the classroom, ported to an online forum is still terrible instruction.  The success of online resources is solely attributed to the successful pedagogical practices of the facilitator/teacher.  

On page 9 the report goes on to say, 

What ever the merits of our traditional education system and whatever the future needs of our pupils might be, it seems likely that the future economy will require an adaptable workforce with the skills, confidence and autonomy to take on new learning.  Web 2.0 can help prepare our students for this future…

I believe this also to be true.  Working with today’s technology is the only way to prepare for the leaps technology will make in the future (for it’s the experience our students have with current technology that will push the brightest to reassess the need for such technologies or provide them the inspiration to advance current technologies beyond recognition or imagination.  Afterall, this is why we think STEM is so important.  

The issue I have with this article isn’t so much the points of the author, but what it says about the outlook of educational researchers worldwide.  

What if we’re going about educational research mostly wrong?  When I was writing my thesis about education in Vermont (USA) I took for granted a very important tenet observable in educational research: that there is a way to measure educational success and that the mountains of available data shows that some areas/schools are better at it than others.  But the article makes me ask a question which I think is important.  What really are we supposing that educational success is?  (if we aren’t clear on that how can we be certain about what means are better than others?).  And if the goal of education is creating an “adaptable workforce with the skills, confidence and autonomy to take on new learning” are we certain that students just need to learn in groups and on the web?  Are those contradictory? I mean it in this way: if we’re certain what the goal of education is–adaptability–why would we compromise to meet students halfway when forcing them to adapt is really the point?

As you can tell, I’m currently confused by the assertation that technology is part of the answer.  Especially so when I have no idea which goal we’re trying to meet.  Standardized tests, college graduation, jobs, HS graduation?

Thanks to Darren Walker for penning the piece and doing the great research (I plan on reading several of the sources to get a better handle on this topic and more.

A double whammy for schools: the result of our financial crisis

Around the country school budgets at the state level are under the knife.  In CA, the budget shortfall has put at jeopardy CTAP (an entire statewide network of professional development) and in one district alone (LAUSD) has caused 3000 education staff members to be released.  If I’m a public school teacher/student in urban CA I’m shakin’ in my booties.

In my home state of Vermont there is all sorts of pressure to cut the biggest slice of the budget pie (education) though nothing better than taking shots at the teacher’s union and administrators whose salaries/benefits account for roughly 70% of the entire budget.  These are all necessary pieces of the conversation, unfortunately there’s another side of the story.  

While pay was taking up a large amount of costs of total school budgets, it was not translating into more $$ for technology/professional development/classroom budgets.  In lieu of more money, some teachers found ways to augment their classrooms with free web-based technology provided by the countless start-ups around the world catering to the education/business world with fancy, easy-t0-use web-based applications.  Teachers, it seems, always are looking for ways to do more with less, unfortunately, it’s looking like some of the freebies so highly touted by bloggers and technologists nationwide are going the way of the dinosaurs.  

The financial crisis is already causing companies providing free services to cut offerings.  The “if you build it they will pay” mentality has hit the brick wall that is financial reality.  Many companies who staked their claim at offering something for free were actually trying to establish their market place through a large virtual land grab: take this free stuff and they hope 1. that they’ll sign up more people than the next guy doing the same thing, 2. that they’ll be able to figure out to make money from you without pissing you off and forcing you to go to the next guy and 3. that if they do offer a paid service it’ll be good enough that you’ll want to (voluntarily) pay them.  The reality is that the real costs of business are growing more and more apparent.  The financial crisis, specifically for these educational service companies, is making the market smaller in some cases (as teachers are forced to re-evaluate paid services) and is forcing them to evaluate the business plan that once incorporated a free version of their service.  What I think is currently happening is that these services are slowly changing their businessdeadcomputerjpg1plans to focus on revenues rather than total userbase (after all 5 paying customers is better for the balance sheet than 1000 free customers which are all liabilities i.e. cost of servers, support, etc.).

Now, you’re probably thinking, but what services have gone away?  Well, the first was as high profile as they get.  Google, at the end of 08 discontinued one of it’s services called Lively (which at least one teacher found valuable to their classroom).  Another service, co.comments ended.  And some other bloggers have picked up on this as well: end of Innocence, death of web2.0.

What’s funny is that this whole scenario is cyclical (talk about deja vu).  Pundits believed the exact same was happening in 2001 after the bubble burst.

what's the point of public education

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately, mainly because I see so much inefficiency in education in general.  I work for an online education company (hosting and PD) which makes me privy to a perspective that a lot of people are never forced to have.  

Now, you might be saying “how is it inefficient?” so here are a few ways (off the top of my head).  

  • localism pervades and disrupts otherwise efficient plans – just look at professional development (PD). It’s not just every state that has different standards and bureaucracy–it’s EVERY district!
  • there’s no consistency across districts or states – if you’re a student your educational opportunities are a crap shoot.  They shouldn’t be but they are.  I went to X school with 4 AP courses while my cousins went to Y school with over a dozen.  Is that really fair?
  • The goal of education is not clear cut – the goal of education resides in a crazy grey area, depending on your perspective/position it might be retention, graduation rates, good grades, college acceptance, a job, or simply being able to read.  While encompassing every one of those goals (and more) the purpose of education, and those working to steer it are aligning education through-puts to achieve a specific goal which is not always or consistently aligned with the goals of the student, community, etc.

Which, taking all into account, is both discouraging and frustrating.  

I’m going to work on getting a handle on this.  To do so, I’m going to start by reading this book with a too long URL: Common Sense – A new conversation about public education.  I’ll post/vent again shortly.

I heart education

There are those things in life that just give you that feeling.  Butterflies brought on by the excitement of envisioning change.  I can see the change that needs to happen in education.  I just want to help it happen faster.

I’m not even sure if many teachers have this feeling.  I hope they do, but I imagine it gets “beat” out of some over a few short months of adhering to standards or getting pushed aside for the core competencies that states and governments continue to push.

Give me a few and I’ll do my best to contribute.

Charter Schools Make Gains On Tests – washingtonpost.com

I really enjoyed this article about charter schools, which helps to point out a few things: funding and teacher motivation can have huge impacts on the success of students, and that the rest of the public school system can probably learn a few bits from the successful charter schools around.  For example:

At Friendship’s Blow Pierce middle school in Northeast, parents are asked to sign a statement promising that they will get their children to school on time each day, make sure they wear the uniform, complete homework on time, and attend classes on Saturdays and in the summer if their grades fall below a C average. The parents also agree to attend conferences and school events.

via Charter Schools Make Gains On Tests – washingtonpost.com.

The use of technology in the classroom (even at the preschool and kindergarten level) is pretty astounding, but it certainly helps that some of the schools are getting sizable grants from major foundations.  It will be interesting to see what funding, staffing and pedagogical innovations these schools can come up with in the near future. Certainly mainstream education can learn a thing or two from KIPP and it’s peers.

I wish…

Misspelling is a pet peeve.  I hate finding words spelled incorrectly on websites (on corporate web pages), in emails or on blogs.  I know they are created quickly and each post is a “draft” but with the invention of Firefox and some other browsers spell checkers (WP has one built right in) it seems that we all (internet-users) should not have to see spelling errors.  They’re just too easy to correct, prevent, get rid of (and call out).

Students these days have atrocious spelling.  L33t speak, texting and perhaps a degraded education system (go NCLB!).  I’m privy to lots of discussion forum posts through my job (monitoring an education based site) and some of the spelling errors are deplorable (even for high schoolers!). 

Now, I know I’m setting up myself for criticism (just imagine if I spell something wrong in this post! what a hypocrite I will be/am).  

Here’s my wish: I wish that the web enforced it’s own spell checking.  So that no matter how bad someone’s spelling is, shouldn’t the web be able to correct it before I have to read it.  Can’t I go to my “tools” on Firefox of Chrome and choose to have my web filtered/corrected automatically so I get a clean, entirely comprehensible, easy read on my screen?

Internet gods: please deliver me from poor spelling.