Many teachers see failure in students' future
More teachers than administrators agree or strongly agree with the statement:
"Most students at this school would not be successful at a community college or university."
Strongly disagree/disagree
• Teachers: 58.1%
• Administrators: 85.2%
Agree/strongly agree
• Teachers: 23.6%
• Administrators: 7%
Not sure
• Teachers: 18.4%
• Administrators: 7.4%
Source: National School Boards Association
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Ask a teacher whether her students are on track to earn a college degree, and she'll probably say "Sure."
Grant her anonymity, and you may get a different point of view.
In a wide-ranging survey being released Tuesday, nearly one in four teachers in urban schools paint a sobering picture of students there. They say most children "would not be successful at a community college or university."
Even more say students "are not motivated to learn."
In all, 23.6% of public school teachers at all levels say success in college would elude most students in their school. An additional 18% say they aren't sure.
The results were surprising even to the study's author, Brian Perkins, a professor of education law and policy at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Conn.
"I anticipated that there would be some teachers who feel that way," he says. "What I did not anticipate was the number who responded that they didn't think students would be successful."
White teachers seem to have the bleakest view: 24.5% predict failure in college, higher than among black (22.1%) or Hispanic (17.6%) teachers.
Administrators paint a rosier picture: Only 7% predict the same for their students. But 15.6% say their students "are not motivated to learn."
Part of the problem could be a perceived lack of support from parents: 57% of teachers say parents "are supportive" of the school and its activities; 28% say parents aren't supportive.
John Mitchell, director of educational issues for the American Federation of Teachers, says the findings could be largely the result of events that happened in the day or so before the survey.
"You go through a lot in a day, and you have days when you feel optimistic and days when you don't," he says.
But he says the results shouldn't be considered "a statement of (teachers') aspirations for the kids — it may very well be a statement that these kids aren't getting enough to make it through college."
Other findings:
•One in eight teachers say their school is not a safe place.
•65.8% of black administrators say children are bullied regularly at their school; only 49.3% of white administrators and 29.7% of Hispanic administrators say the same.
The survey on school climate is among the largest teacher surveys ever. Sponsored by the National School Boards Association, it queried 4,700 educators from 127 schools in 12 urban districts. It has a margin of error of plus/minus 3 percentage points.
To see the full survey, visit www.nsba.org/cube/whereweteach.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Take a little off the TOP!
POLITICALLY SPEAKING: School boss tries a new look
March 28, 2007
State schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan brought an electric razor on stage when he spoke at the Governor's Education Summit in Lansing Monday.
Then, in front of several hundred school officials gathered for lunch, he began to trim his beard.
BZZZZ!
Twice during his 20-minute presentation, he took the razor to his gray foliage to illustrate his theme that school officials must transform themselves to educate kids in an increasingly competitive global economy.
When he removed a little more mustache than he wanted, he joked, "I'm going for the Pennsylvania Dutch look." (Apparently, Flanagan decided later for aesthetic reasons to take it all off, and he showed up for work Tuesday clean-shaven.)
He told the crowd Monday, "I want to burn into your brains that this is about our decisions ... All kids can do it if we're willing to transform."
Tell that to Britney Spears.
The FUTURE is NOW!
Classrooms for the Future
Colonial School District is among the first districts to receive a "Classrooms for the Future" grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
By News Staff
In September 2006, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell announced "Classrooms for the Future," an initiative to transform the high school learning experience. The program will put a laptop computer on every high school English, math, science and social studies desk and provide teachers with a multimedia workstation and intensive training to enhance education. The governor's 2006-07 budget provided $20 million for the first year of the initiative, with plans to expand the program statewide.
An additional $6 million in state and federal resources will be used to train teachers and administrators on how to best harness the power of technology to enhance classroom discussions, lessons and projects.
In addition to the laptops, each classroom will be equipped with an interactive whiteboard and projector, Web cams and other video cameras. Teachers and students will also have access to imaging software.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Web site, Classrooms for the Future "is designed to ensure there is a laptop on every high school classroom desk in English, Math, Science and Social Studies in all public high schools and career and technical centers in Pennsylvania ... High school students are poised to enter the global marketplace or to continue their education beyond preK-12 and it is our obligation to prepare them within a short window of opportunity." Seventy-nine school districts were selected to participate in the first year of the program.
The Colonial School District is among the first districts to receive a Classrooms for the Future grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The $202,539 grant is among the largest issued to a single school and will be used to purchase 192 wireless student laptops for classroom use the Plymouth Whitemarsh High School (PWHS) Social Studies Department, as well as provide staff development and training.
The entire PWHS campus was equipped with wireless capability as part of an extensive upgrade of technology resources. Interactive whiteboards and high-powered digital overhead presenters connected directly to a video/data projector for real-time viewing were installed in 52 classrooms in time for the start of the school year. There are presently 90 of these classrooms engaging students in the Colonial School District this fall. An additional 32 classrooms are scheduled to be online for the 2007-08 school year thanks to the ongoing support of the community and the school board of directors.
"This grant confirms that the Colonial School District has been on the cutting edge of technology and the use of technology to deliver curriculum for the past three years," said Superintendent Dr. Vincent F. Cotter. "From extensive use of data analysis to interactive classrooms, Colonial has been a leader in utilizing technology to educate our students. This grant gives us the impetus to accelerate our technology implementation schedule."
As part of its Classrooms of the Future Grant, Colonial uses a server-based digital video delivery system, a pre-screened academic content search engine, Internet2 and conferencing solutions. In spring 2006, middle school students learned about Australia's Great Barrier Reef through a video conference with instructors from down under.
The district Web site is an integral portal for students, teachers, parents, community members and school board members to stay informed on major developments taking place in the district. The K-12 social studies curriculum is online and available to all stakeholders. Resources aligned with the curriculum are also available via the Web site. Teachers have created best practice lessons that can be implemented and shared using all of the technologies available; this model is currently being applied to other content areas such as language arts, science and math. The district continues to expand the framework, moving to a portal solution to provide all the instructional tools necessary for the 21st century classroom.
Laptop equipment from the Classrooms for the Future grant is expected to be released to the district first as one of selected pilot schools ready for implementation into the classroom instructional program. The 192 wireless laptops are just the first phase in the Classrooms for the Future grant from PDE. Approximately 720 additional laptops will be brought online in the next two years, pending finding approval by the Pennsylvania Legislature. Those laptops will support the language arts, math and science curriculum.
Classrooms for the Future is a $250 million, three-year comprehensive high school reform project that leverages all of Pennsylvania's education efforts. The program recognizes and embraces the need for high school reform, enables teachers to use technology as an effective tool for educating students and prepares students to enter and successfully compete in the ever-expanding high-tech global marketplace.
Colonial School District is among the first districts to receive a "Classrooms for the Future" grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
By News Staff
In September 2006, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell announced "Classrooms for the Future," an initiative to transform the high school learning experience. The program will put a laptop computer on every high school English, math, science and social studies desk and provide teachers with a multimedia workstation and intensive training to enhance education. The governor's 2006-07 budget provided $20 million for the first year of the initiative, with plans to expand the program statewide.
An additional $6 million in state and federal resources will be used to train teachers and administrators on how to best harness the power of technology to enhance classroom discussions, lessons and projects.
In addition to the laptops, each classroom will be equipped with an interactive whiteboard and projector, Web cams and other video cameras. Teachers and students will also have access to imaging software.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Web site, Classrooms for the Future "is designed to ensure there is a laptop on every high school classroom desk in English, Math, Science and Social Studies in all public high schools and career and technical centers in Pennsylvania ... High school students are poised to enter the global marketplace or to continue their education beyond preK-12 and it is our obligation to prepare them within a short window of opportunity." Seventy-nine school districts were selected to participate in the first year of the program.
The Colonial School District is among the first districts to receive a Classrooms for the Future grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The $202,539 grant is among the largest issued to a single school and will be used to purchase 192 wireless student laptops for classroom use the Plymouth Whitemarsh High School (PWHS) Social Studies Department, as well as provide staff development and training.
The entire PWHS campus was equipped with wireless capability as part of an extensive upgrade of technology resources. Interactive whiteboards and high-powered digital overhead presenters connected directly to a video/data projector for real-time viewing were installed in 52 classrooms in time for the start of the school year. There are presently 90 of these classrooms engaging students in the Colonial School District this fall. An additional 32 classrooms are scheduled to be online for the 2007-08 school year thanks to the ongoing support of the community and the school board of directors.
"This grant confirms that the Colonial School District has been on the cutting edge of technology and the use of technology to deliver curriculum for the past three years," said Superintendent Dr. Vincent F. Cotter. "From extensive use of data analysis to interactive classrooms, Colonial has been a leader in utilizing technology to educate our students. This grant gives us the impetus to accelerate our technology implementation schedule."
As part of its Classrooms of the Future Grant, Colonial uses a server-based digital video delivery system, a pre-screened academic content search engine, Internet2 and conferencing solutions. In spring 2006, middle school students learned about Australia's Great Barrier Reef through a video conference with instructors from down under.
The district Web site is an integral portal for students, teachers, parents, community members and school board members to stay informed on major developments taking place in the district. The K-12 social studies curriculum is online and available to all stakeholders. Resources aligned with the curriculum are also available via the Web site. Teachers have created best practice lessons that can be implemented and shared using all of the technologies available; this model is currently being applied to other content areas such as language arts, science and math. The district continues to expand the framework, moving to a portal solution to provide all the instructional tools necessary for the 21st century classroom.
Laptop equipment from the Classrooms for the Future grant is expected to be released to the district first as one of selected pilot schools ready for implementation into the classroom instructional program. The 192 wireless laptops are just the first phase in the Classrooms for the Future grant from PDE. Approximately 720 additional laptops will be brought online in the next two years, pending finding approval by the Pennsylvania Legislature. Those laptops will support the language arts, math and science curriculum.
Classrooms for the Future is a $250 million, three-year comprehensive high school reform project that leverages all of Pennsylvania's education efforts. The program recognizes and embraces the need for high school reform, enables teachers to use technology as an effective tool for educating students and prepares students to enter and successfully compete in the ever-expanding high-tech global marketplace.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
School Begins "Long-Slog" into Digital Irrelevance!
Parents back school's MySpace ban
March 24, 2007
On the first day of a strict policy banning students at St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic School from using social networking Web sites, administrators and parents were online ferreting out those who had yet to comply.
"You get to know their code names," Judy Martinek, the school's office manager, said Friday.
Sister Margaret Van Velzen, principal of the Bloomfield Hills school, said the policy took effect Friday in response to concerns about students posting "nasty things on the Internet," and as an attempt to keep the children safe.
Van Velzen said Friday she does not know of any other school with such a policy, nor had she received complaints about it.
"I have not had one parent who is opposed to this," she said.
Still, as technology becomes more accessible, St. Hugo's new policy raises questions for educators. How, for example, will schools control Internet access when free wireless access becomes available through all of Oakland County in 2008? Or, as prices drop for handheld phones that connect to the Web and more students get them, what then?
"There are so many changes in technology," said Marcia Wilkinson, director of community relations for the Birmingham public schools. "A lot of issues are coming up that people were not dealing with even a year ago."
Social networking sites, such as MySpace, market themselves as places in cyberspace for people to meet and communicate, often connecting using clever aliases. But, law enforcement officials say, children who join these sites may be putting themselves in harm's way -- especially from sexual predators.
St. Hugo, which runs from kindergarten through eighth grade, also enacted the policy because it wanted to eliminate unhealthy competition among young students who were comparing the number of people in their network, Van Velzen said. One student, she said, bragged of linking with as many as 800 others.
The school's policy also raises the question: How much control can a school exert beyond the classroom?
Officials in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne County public schools -- and University Liggett School, a private pre-kindergarten through 12th grade school in Grosse Pointe Woods -- said they leave it up to parents to decide whether students can use MySpace, or other similar sites, at home.
"Schools have to be responsible for students when they're at school, but with the blurring of the lines of virtual and real-world education, where are the lines?" said Linda Wacky, director of communications for the Michigan Association of School Administrators in Lansing. Melodye Bush, a researcher with the Education Commission of the States, said she has never heard of another school enacting such a policy and has doubts about whether it is constitutional. The commission is a Denver-based think-tank that tracks education trends nationwide.
St. Hugo has had a policy prohibiting its 773 students from posting offensive or inappropriate comments and pictures on the Web for years, Van Velzen said. But the new policy went a step further by banning students from using MySpace and other similar sites all together. Under the policy, students who refuse to delete their accounts will be suspended.
"People know the difference between using social networking for a good reason and for things that would be hurtful," Van Velzen said.
Under MySpace rules, children 14 years and younger should not have a presence on the site anyway, but, Van Velzen said, the company does not adequately enforce that, and many students simply lie about their age. St. Hugo students with sites who were caught Friday were told to dismantle them.
Contact FRANK WITSIL at 248-351-3690 or witsil@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
RESPONSE: Mosaic Ghana Africa / Offer to Participate and Endorse
Hi Joe:
CONGRATULATIONS on the continuing development of a "meaningful conversation" regarding the various opportunities and possibilities represented by the identified constituents namely Ghana, West Africa and the United States of America.
As you and I have discussed on many occasions this is truly a mission which is dear to our organizations hearts, minds and endeavors. Over the last several years we have crossed paths several times on this "purity of purpose" undertaking. Witness, our seminal discussions and interactions with our Detroit community partners at the "Friends of Detroit & Tri-County" community learning center and mutual efforts on behalf of the "Gateway to West Africa Project" orchestrated by Chief, Nana Kwaku Yiadom. Additionally, we have participated in and supported from its inception the annual Oakland Schools "Global Trade Mission" efforts under the leadership and tutelage of Dr. Marlana Krolicki, Oakland Schools ISD, by providing real-world, subject-matter experts, leadership-speakers from the Sub-Saharan Continent of Africa namely Mr. Edo Mansaluca (2 years) of Angola, West Africa and The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chief Nana Kwaku Yiadom (2 years) of Ghana, West Africa. Clearly, as you and I will agree these are not merely co-incidences but rather may indeed be guided by a much higher-ordered hand.
Your invitation to participate and/or endorse these continuing efforts via Mosaic Ghana Africa is well received by our organization and we wish to affirm our continuing commitment and support to this shared alignment of purpose. Of course as they say, "the devil is in the details" and without a thorough understanding of those details on our part we are unable to define the potential depths of our contributions and involvement. Perhaps a "meeting of the minds" is in order to further our base-understanding of this undertaking and to "plumb the depths" of the various possibilities this truly collaborative opportunity represents? Additionally, if you would kindly forward the Mosaic Ghana Africa Information/Media Kit (address below) as you proposed it would be much appreciated and serve to facilitate our deeper understanding.
Although I can not speak for Kent Roberts and his organization (Civility Center), nor would I assume to, I'm sure he would resonate with this collaborative missions intentions. His organization and his personal message, mission and mind would be a great addition and complement to this endeavor.
Finally, as you may or may not know "21st Century Digital Learning Environments" has been deeply embedded in the Detroit Public Schools system via Northwestern High School and the AIM Program (Achievement In Motion) for much of the last year. This is a "stellar" leading-edge technological K-12 Education Model Program under the visionary direction and leadership of Dr. Shedrick Ward, Director, Detroit Public Schools, Science Math and Technology Resource Center. Dr. Ward is also the sole-author of the Detroit Public Schools Technology Plan (2006) which in my humble opinion, is the finest example of an K-12 Education Technology Plan in this country. Perhaps there are some cross-pollination opportunities to "share the wealth" through this undertaking.
Please let us know what your thoughts might be. Much continued success!
Kind regards,
Jim
Jim Ross, president
21st Century Digital Learning Environments
41810 Huntington Ct.
Clinton Township, MI 48038
586-228-0608
Friday, March 23, 2007
Ghana, West Africa, Trade Mission
Hi John, Jim and Kent,
I trust all is well and sincerely wish you are getting everything out of life that you desire. I am sending this to you based on our previous discussions on ways to potentially develop and expand
The main purpose for contacting you is to ask you to consider participating and/or endorsing this mission, known as Mosaic Ghana Africa™. As a Participant, you would experience the cultural and business aspects of
I look forward to your thoughts and comments regarding Mosaic Ghana Africa™. An informational/media kit is available and can be sent upon request. Please feel free to forward this information to friends and colleagues. . As a note, it is my intention to make a pre-Tour trip and I have permission from the House of Chiefs to videotape many aspects of my pre-Tour trip including spending overnight in a local village like I did in
Best regards and have a great week.
Joe
Joseph P. Cool
President
Cool & Associates, Inc.
248 683 1130
 |  | |||||
 | ||||||
| The Future of Learning The Future of Learning is the topic of the next in a series of MacArthur Foundation regional public events on digital media and learning issues. This panel discussion will take place on Saturday, April 21 at 9:00 a.m. in the Peter and Ginny Nicholas Auditorium at Duke University's School of Nursing. The event is organized by HASTAC, a consortium of humanists, artists, scientists, social scientists, and engineers from universities and other civic institutions. Panelists will discuss how the digital age is changing learning. Video of the event will be available the following week on MacArthur's website. | ||||||
 | ||||||
| When Where | Julia Stasch, Vice President of the Program on Human and Community Development at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, will provide an overview of MacArthur’s new digital media and learning initiative and how it is helping to build the field. Cathy Davidson and David Theo Goldberg , Co-Directors of HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory), a virtual university, will discuss the future of learning institutions in the digital age. Carl Harris, Superintendent of Durham Public Schools, will discuss the future of learning from the perspective of public schools. The program will be moderated by Connie Yowell, Director for Digital Media, Learning and Education at the MacArthur Foundation. | |||||
| | ||||||
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007
"Sticky-Thinking" vs. The Swift-boat of Unknowing
Published: March 20, 2007
Commentary
The New Anti-Intellectualism in America
When Curricular Rigor and ‘Pedagogical Fraud’ Go Hand in Hand
It seems odd to accuse the schools of anti-intellectualism when they are engaged in a relentless drive for higher test scores, and students are required to take more difficult academic courses. Passing rates on some state and local tests show small increases, but there has been little if any improvement on well-established national tests. The small gains we’ve seen may be the result of concentrated instruction on narrowly defined objectives. But we are not promoting intellectual habits of mind. Indeed, we may be reducing intellectual life to mental labor. What are the signs that this is happening?
First, there is a proliferation of fake academic courses. These courses are instigated by the demand that almost all children now take academic courses such as algebra and geometry. The decision for this requirement has not been supported by strong, well-informed debate. Is it true, for example, that all students need more mathematics today than people did in previous generations? If the answer is yes (but there are powerful arguments in favor of a negative reply), then it is reasonable to ask, What sort of mathematics? Must it be traditional algebra and geometry? Why?
Instead of debating these questions, policymakers have mandated—in the name of equality—that all children, regardless of their talents and interests, should have the “opportunity” once reserved for relatively few. Hardworking teachers then must try to get unwilling, unprepared students through material they have no interest in learning. Many youngsters have alternative, genuine talents, but these are disregarded. To give such students a chance to pass the required courses, teachers concentrate on a few discrete skills that can be gained through a steady routine of drill.
Providing a complete structure of what is to be learned and a detailed list of outcomes expected of all students facilitates quick, shallow learning and swift forgetting.
I’ve observed such classes. In some, no word problems or applications are even attempted. In a bow to analytic geometry, the distance formula is memorized, but with no mention of the Pythagorean theorem. In many geometry classes, no proofs at all are done. (Reducing the emphasis on proof is justified, but eliminating it entirely casts doubt on whether the course should be called geometry.) The end result is that many students have “algebra” and “geometry” on their transcripts, but they can’t pass state tests in math, and they need remedial courses in college. They have had pseudo-algebra and pseudo-geometry. This is pedagogical fraud, and such students are doubly cheated. They do poorly in the required courses, and they are deprived of courses in which they might have done well.
I am not arguing that the traditional academic courses are properly “intellectual” and other courses are not. On the contrary, I believe that intellectually exciting topics and challenging problems can and should arise in all well-taught classes—in cooking, chemistry, photography, mechanics, and everything else the schools offer. My objection is to the virtual elimination of intellectual content in many of today’s academic courses.
A second signal is that the overuse of specific learning objectives in all subjects works against the development of intellectual habits of mind. Superficially, it seems fair to tell students exactly what they must learn and be able to do as a result of instruction. This is instructionally sound when we are teaching a narrowly defined skill, but it is a poor way to encourage problem-solving, critical thinking, and the habits of mind that support further, deeper learning. Too often the result of such instruction is students who can add when told to add, or solve quadratic equations when told to “solve the following quadratic equations,” but cannot decide when to use these techniques in solving problems. In the interest of intellectual habits of mind, students must be asked to identify for themselves the important points in every unit of study, construct their own summaries, attempt problems that have no obvious solution, engage in interpretation, and evaluate conflicting explanations and points of view.
TalkBack
Join the related discussion, “Standardized Expectations vs. Creative Thinking.”
Providing a complete structure of what is to be learned and a detailed list of outcomes expected of all students facilitates quick, shallow learning and swift forgetting. The little actually remembered is very like a collection of meaningless bits for Trivial Pursuit. Students come to expect that they should have answers at their fingertips instead of developing an attitude of inquiry—one of willingness to figure things out.
The insistence on precisely stated learning objectives, moreover, also drastically reduces the number of classroom sessions designed to expose students to new, interesting ideas that may or may not result in specific learning. It is right to pay continuous, careful attention to whether students are learning certain specific material. But there should also be sessions devoted to intellectual “inputs”—topics teachers choose to present or offer—leaving open what students might do as a result.
To support intellectual life and the joy of learning, we should expand the possibilities, not narrow them.
Many intellectually exciting and socially significant lessons conducted by creative teachers are designed to induce awareness, not specific learning. It is a shame to sacrifice such sessions in our zeal to achieve a pre-specified learning objective for every lesson, every day. In addition to asking the question, Has Johnny learned X? we should also ask, What has Johnny learned? In a class of 25 students, we might get 25 different answers to this—some disheartening (from which we should learn), and some quite thrilling.
To support intellectual life and the joy of learning, we should expand the possibilities, not narrow them. Part of our job as educators is to offer opportunities, to open the door to a world of intellectual possibilities. Another part is to encourage our students to think and to take responsibility for their own expanded learning. It is important, therefore, to consider intellectual inputs as well as pre-specified student outcomes.
Students do not come to us as standard raw material, and we should not expect to produce standard academic products. Intellectual life is challenging, enormously diverse, and rewarding. It requires initiative and independent thinking, not the tedious following of orders. It should not be reduced to mental drudgery.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Detroit AIM Program Rises to Prominence!
AIM "Makes it's Indelible Mark" for Educational Excellence!
HEAR IT FOR YOURSELF!
http://www.wwj.com
Kilpatrick tells Detroit: Let's tackle crime, grime together
'Nobody's coming to save us'
March 14, 2007
Saying it's time for Detroiters to stop blaming outsiders for the city's ills, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick called on residents Tuesday to take personal responsibility and promised a more focused government that would reduce crime by adding 200 police officers, establish job centers and restore six neighborhoods with an aggressive, five-year plan.
He said he wants to do that and more without raising taxes. In fact, the mayor said he'll cut both property and income taxes, though he would not say how the city, already facing a $96-million deficit, would make up the money.
Kilpatrick made the comments in his sixth State of the City speech at Orchestra Hall with much of his administration and City Council in attendance.
Residents besieged by crime in some of the city's forgotten neighborhoods hope the mayor can make good on his promises.
Mary Abner, 49, who lives on the east side near Davison and 6 Mile, wants to take the mayor's message to heart and hopes her neighbors will, too.
"If he holds up to all that he's talking about, we're rolling," Abner said. "I liked everything about it, especially the part on the neighborhoods and the crime and the kids."
Touching on a tried-and-true mayoral theme hit hard during the administration of Dennis Archer, the mayor strongly took Detroiters to task for the crime ravaging the city. He called on parents to become active in their children's lives, pastors to engage in the neighborhoods where they preach and residents to clean their sidewalks, fix up their homes and reclaim their streets.
"My beloved community, I truly understand the history of African-American people in this country," he said. "But we have come to a point in our community where this is no outside conspiracy doing this to us. This is us killing us. ... And we, as a community, have to stop it now. Nobody's coming to save us."
The more than 2,000 people, including state Sen. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit, and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, a Detroit Democrat; city appointees, community activists, residents, pastors and business leaders who packed the hall for the invitation-only event cheered the loudest when he called for personal action and laid out his plan to fight crime. They gave him several standing ovations.
Citing that 70% of homicides are narcotics-related, Kilpatrick called on parents to warn their children about the dangers of the thug life.
"We need to help them understand that the so-called glamorous life that they see in some of these videos is not reality," he said.
"We need to help our children understand that, when you get involved in drugs and sitting in a drug house, there's no high-priced champagne, there's no dancing pretty girls, no nice clothes. There's no bling bling. You can get killed."
The number of homicides in the city increased by almost 10% from 2005 and 2006, according to the Police Executive Research Forum, which tracks crime trends in the country.
A significant portion of the mayor's speech focused on an anticrime strategy that calls for hiring 200 police officers to complement the city's 3,100-member force. The mayor said he will augment the force by deploying a SWAT team to patrol areas where there is significant drug dealing or high incidence of robberies and shootings, as well as creating rapid-response units for priority 911 calls.
Patrol officers will be joined by desk officers and commanders, including Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings, who will be deployed during weekend nights to hot-spot areas, such as nightclubs, party stores and all-night restaurants.
Thomas Wilson Jr., a west-side resident who is president of the Northwestern District Police Community Relations Organization, said the mayor's crime fighting plan did not go far enough to beef up a police department that at its height had more than 5,000 members.
"He's saying he's going to put 200 officers on the street, but you have so many police officers retiring or leaving," Wilson said. "You've got people leaving out the back door of the house and people walking in the front. Does the house ever get full? No.
"It's one thing to tell the chief to take the streets back. It's another to have the manpower to do it," he said.
For all the rhetoric in the mayor's speech, it was still light on the specifics of how he plans to accomplish many of his promises. He has said he will unveil more specifics on funding in coming weeks.
The money issue is critical. Last week, the mayor mentioned a bond initiative he said would fund some of his ideas.
Kilpatrick also announced Tuesday some financial assistance for his Next Detroit Neighborhood Initiative from several foundations and agencies, including the Knight and Skillman foundations.
The mayor said he would address the deficit and the city's fiscal state when he presents his budget plan to the City Council on April 12. He said the current year would end in the black, but he has made that pledge before, and the year-end deficits have always been higher than the mayor estimates.
The mayor also pledged to make workforce development a critical component of his administration, creating programs to help Detroiters in all aspects of job hunting, from preparing resumes and developing employable skills to finding jobs with growth potential.
He said, by year's end, the city's Workforce Development Center will create career centers to help people find jobs in such high-demand industries as health, information technology, construction and retail.
"The only thing this process requires of each participant is personal commitment to be ready to learn and to prepare themselves to work," Kilpatrick said. "That means going to class. That means developing the skills that will make you employable. That means good work habits. And, yes, it means passing the drug test."
He also outlined his plan to transform six city neighborhoods but offered few specifics since announcing the initiative in December.
Meanwhile, he said, the city is working with the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, to develop a strategy over the next three years to assess the buying power in Detroit's neighborhoods in order to attract more businesses.
"They have been very successful in convincing retailers who once said no to a community to actually change their decision and locate in the that community," Kilpatrick said.
"We know Detroiters can shop with the best of them," he said. "And we deserve and have the right to have the best retail in our communities."
At least one mayoral critic, Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins, liked what she heard about revitalizing the neighborhoods and even pledged to help him find the funding.
"I thought he was right on target," she said. "I'll do my part to help him find the money."
Contact MARISOL BELLO at 313- 222-6678 or bello@freepress.com. Staff writers Kathleen Gray and Suzette Hackney contributed.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Friday, March 09, 2007
CHANGE the current Pedagogical Process!
http://www.eschoolnews.com
Contents Copyright 2007 eSchool News. All rights reserved.
Change arrives at FETC 2007
Speakers at Florida's venerable ed-tech event urged attendees to 'change the world,' adapt to changing technologies, and respond to the changing needs of students
From eSchool Newsstaff reports
March 1, 2007 Barely more than a week after business-to-business information company 1105 Media Inc. of Chatsworth, Calif., announced that it had acquired Florida Educational Technology Corp.--the long-time producer of the annual Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC)--this year's FETC kicked off at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando Jan. 24.
Despite the announced change in ownership, it was business as usual for the teachers, administrators, and ed-tech experts who attended this year's conference. FETC 2007 featured eight keynote speeches; more than 200 concurrent sessions demonstrating how ed-tech applications and best practices can be used in the classroom; and an exhibit hall showcasing the products of more than 400 companies.
Though FETC's change in ownership might not have registered with attendees, the theme of change itself--changing the world, changing technologies, and changing expectations for today's students--resonated throughout the three-day event.
Science Guy to educators: 'Change the world'
FETC 2007 began with an ambitious challenge from keynote speaker Bill Nye to conference participants: "Change the world."
Best known for his work on the television program Bill Nye the Science Guy, which earned him seven Emmy Awards, Nye also has written four books. He is the host of two currently running television series: The 100 Greatest Discoveries, which airs on the Science Channel, and The Eyes of Nye, which airs on PBS stations.
"The next decade is going to change the world, and we're all going to be here for it," Nye said, addressing the audience in his trademark blazer and bowtie.
Nye discussed how his father's fascination with sundials inspired his own interest in how science affects everyday phenomena, then linked his personal interests and experiences with FETC's mission--to promote educational technology.
Calling the essence of science "the joy of discovery," Nye discussed recent discoveries on the planet Mars and related them to today's science education. He also discussed the issue of global warming and the fact that some influential political activists and others in leadership roles do not believe it to be a problem.
"We are facing a serious business here on Earth; we are facing a very serious future unless we get on it," he warned. "This is where we, as educators, must change the world."
President Bush's American Competitive-ness Initiative, designed to increase the number of scientists, technical workers, and qualified math and science teachers in the United States, should be a motivation to educators, Nye said.
He described several scientific problems and their potential solutions, emphasizing that through education, the nation's students might come up with the answers to some of today's most pressing questions.
"One hundred years ago we were riding horses to work, but now we've changed and we have cars," he said. "In another hundred years we can change again, and that is up to us as educators, to make our students realize that [science] is a worthy pursuit."
Three skills students need to be globally competitive
Day Two of the conference opened with several simultaneous keynote sessions. One of these, from Alan November, an internationally recognized ed-tech leader and consultant, focused on how to prepare U.S. students to compete and succeed in an increasingly global economy.
"Are we producing children who are globally competitive?" November asked the audience. "The answer is no. Until we sort out what it means to be globally competitive ... [we] will fail."
The key to using technology in the classroom, November said, is not to train teachers how to use it, but to train them on how to incorporate technology creatively into lessons in engaging and stimulating ways. Additionally, students should be able to connect with classrooms around the world, to boost a global perspective on learning.
"The real staff development problem in K-12 is not teaching teachers technology, it's teaching them to redesign the assignments they give students to be more rigorous and demanding," November said. He added: "Our standards are too low."
November emphasized three skills needed to turn the nation's classrooms into places of effective digital learning. The first, he said, is to teach students to deal with massive amounts of information.
"We tend not to do this, and tend to give children only a little bit of information at a time, in the right order, to take the next test," he said.
The second essential skill requires every classroom to become a global communication center, with a more globalized curriculum.
"Teach children to work with people around the world, and establish a network of people you tap to make your students' learning experiences more effective," he urged attendees. "If every classroom were to connect students around the world, not only will we teach content, but [also] social protocol and how to work in teams, and [how to respect] other viewpoints. We're spending too much time teaching teachers technical stuff and not enough on the creative application of the technical stuff."
The third skill today's students need is self-direction.
"The real change in the global economy isn't that you get a laptop or an MP3 [player], it's that you don't have a boss telling you what to do," he said. "If one person freezes up when they don't know what to do and someone else is self-directed, that self-directed person is more valuable. We here have a culture that creates dependency; we teach kids how to be taught, and we need to teach them how to organize their own learning."
November suggested ridding schools of planning committees, and turning those groups into global competitiveness committees. The real focus should not be to plan for technology, he said, but to plan for students who can contribute something to the world. Teachers can reach students creatively by tapping into technologies they already use. Use podcasts to teach algebra, or use MySpace to teach social responsibility and implications, November suggested.
"We must teach our teachers to think globally, to connect content from other countries across the curriculum," he said. "Everyone in the world does not love us--they don't. If we don't teach empathy to understand the position of other people, I don't think it's going to get better. We have got to teach empathy."
He concluded: "The real revolution's not technology, it's the fantastic management of information and relationships. That's why we've got to stop planning for technology."
Thursday, March 08, 2007
RELEVANT CHANGE!
A Regent's Vision
Multimedia is Changing New York's Education System.
By Liz Wallendorf
The state of New York has one of the largest, most diverse public school systems in the nation, with more than 7,000 K-12 schools and 248 colleges and universities, from Manhattan to the rural villages of Massena and Waddington, located on the Canadian border.In 2001, Dr. Joseph Bowman was elected to the board of regents that oversees and sets policies for this diverse school system. His election is just another step in his life-long journey to improve the education system in New York and our nation, and to help underprivileged children succeed in school.
Dr. Bowman is involved in so many aspects of education and teaching, it is hard to know what title to use when addressing him. He is a regent, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at University at Albany, State University of New York, the founder and director of the Center for Urban Youth and Technology (CUYT), president of the CUYT foundation, a consultant, and an activist for technology access for the underprivileged.
Changing the World One Child at a Time
"Today, people are confronted with technology on all levels. They need to be able to understand technology to access social services, government services, and medical information," Bowman says. "The leaders of the future are carrying out the business of being adolescents using cell phones, iPods and instant messaging, talking in a new language of digital shorthand, passing electronic notes and carrying on dozens of conversations simultaneously without saying a word."
Dr. Bowman sees this as a problem for kids without access to technology. "We talk about 50 percent of the nation being connected to the Internet in their homes. What about the other 50 percent? What happens to them?" Not content to ask questions to which there are no answers, Dr. Bowman is acting. In 2001 and 2002, he convened a conference on the problems of limited access for economically disadvantaged families and rural areas of New York. Access to technology is opened through the programs of CUYT.
Dr. Bowman believes one of the biggest obstacles is relevance. "You have to make technology relevant to not only the kids, but the parents. It has to be explained in ways that are real to them." He relates the story of a high school freshman at a technology education event. Parents and students were invited to learn about PCs and to purchase systems. "[A student] knew she needed a computer, but couldn't convince her dad to buy one. He didn't see the need," explained Dr. Bowman. Bowman began talking with the gentleman. "Turns out he was from a small village in Brazil. The one thing he really wanted was to be able to read his hometown newspaper." After a quick Internet search, the father found his newspaper and the family had a new computer.
He carries the idea of relevance further. "If we are going to get our kids to study math and science, it has to be real to them," says Bowman. Enter ethnomathematics. Wikipedia defines ethnomathematics as the study of mathematics that considers the culture in which mathematics arises. It focuses on the mathematics that is part of general culture, rather than formal, academic mathematics. One of the programs of CUYT blends math, science, technology and culture to get kids excited about learning. "We know that Latin music has lots of percussion, with an emphasis on drum beats," Bowman says. Within the repeating rhythm are elements of math and pattern analysis. So CUYT created a program using a drum machine, where kids can create their own music, then broadcast that music over a local radio station. Bowman also uses quilt making, hair braiding, and graffiti art to teach kids and get them interested in math.
Changing the World by Changing the System
Throughout the 14 years of CUYT's existence, Bowman has influenced hundreds of kids. However, this is not enough. "I wanted to become a regent because I want to be able to influence the policies that need to be changed if we are going to make the big changes to our education system," says Bowman.
One of his goals as a New York State regent has been to address how New York schools are using technology. "We're working on a technology plan for the state to see how we can use state resources. We have a pre-K-20 initiative that brings it all together -- the museums, the archives, PBS, et cetera. As we're designing these pieces, we're trying to ensure that it is inclusive of the resources we have to offer," Bowman states.
Technology has changed how businesses operate, how governments connect with citizens, and how people communicate with each other. Yet the nation's education system remains essentially as it was more than 100 years ago.
"Technology is a seamless part of our kids' lives," Bowman believes. "They have iPods, play video games, text message each other, but we aren't training teachers to use these tools to teach our children."
Yet these tools are not in the universities and colleges that are teaching the nation's teachers. In fact, very few universities include technology as part of their education degree requirements. Bowman believes this needs to change. Teachers need to learn, not about the technology, but about integrating all the available tools into instruction. "It isn't a simple matter of putting the technology in the schools. Teachers need to learn how to teach with technology." For example, the College of St. Rose, a private college in Albany, uses re-configurable classrooms in its education program. Student teachers can experiment with different room configurations and different technologies to better understand how to integrate technology. Universities should include at least two courses on classroom instruction with technology as part of the degree requirements, Bowman believes.
By taking advantage of the tools available today, Bowman sees an opportunity to change everything, from how kids learn, to the classrooms in which they learn. The Department of Environmental Conservation has students in the field, training teens from local Boys and Girls Clubs to use global positioning systems. While the project, an adaptation of the popular worldwide "GPS Trekking" game, was really more of a treasure hunt than an actual project, it gave the students hands-on experience with GPS. "At first they were reluctant participants. When I gave them the GPS units, their interest increased," says Nancy Payne, an environmental educator at New York's Five Rivers Center. Students learned to use technology as a tool to achieve a common goal and begin to view learning as something more than just school. "There was a lot of laughing and teasing. They all had fun," Payne says.
Bowman believes programs like this create a virtual classroom, teaching students real-world skills that will help them succeed in the business world.
While the magnitude of challenges -- from changing the way teachers are trained to providing technology to all students -- may seem overwhelming, Dr. Bowman has one piece of advice that seems to define his life's work: "Just go do it."
Additional Information
The Center for Urban Youth and Technology
www.albany.edu/cuyt/
Some Current Goals:
-Development of a Multimedia Learning Lab (called Urban CyberSpace Lab) that is community oriented and creates a technology-rich environment where students, parents, small businesses and the community at large can use the resources provided.
-Creation of a school district-wide initiative to provide the networking telecommunications infrastructure that gives access to Internet and satellite/distance teaching capabilities.
-Creation of a teacher-oriented lab/facility for technology-based teacher training development.
-Creation of a job training and retraining technology facility in under-served communities to stimulate economic development.
-Development of skilled professionals in video production and television producing techniques.
Being HERE! (In the Moment) The ART of PRESENCING!
Being Here
Making big changes in a business is always difficult. Can managers make it easier by mastering the art of ''presence''?
Edward Teach, CFO Magazine
March 01, 2007
The pace of work is accelerating. Competitive pressures come from all over the globe; investors grow ever more demanding; cell phones and the Internet keep everyone connected and on alert, 24/7. People are constantly busy and anxious about the future; they have little time to think. No wonder more and more Americans are looking for relief: witness the rising interest in disciplines that promote calm and reflection, such as yoga, meditation, and certain martial arts.
No wonder, too, that more and more people are promoting such practices in the workplace.
Increasingly, consultants and executive coaches stress the benefits of slowing down — of turning off anxious, analytic habits of thinking and tuning in to a contemplative, creative frame of mind. But it isn't easy to slow down. Says Robert Gunn, a founding partner of Accompli, a Princeton, New Jersey–based consultancy: "It's very hard for a leader or executive to drop into what we call presence — or awareness, being, quiet-mindedness, in the moment, whatever term you want."
But it's in that state of presence that a leader's best qualities come out, adds Gunn. Indeed, his ability to help executives be more "in the moment," hence open to new insight, is at the core of his business. Gunn's firm typically helps companies achieve some transformational agenda — a reorganization, for example, or streamlining a function. The ends of an engagement are spelled out, whether it's cost reduction, increased market share, revenue growth, and so on. But helping clients find the means to those ends is a little more intangible.
"Our assumption is that clients always discover the answer within themselves, as opposed to getting an answer externally," says Gunn. "This is not to say you don't need analytic work, and sometimes hiring a strategy firm makes a lot of sense. But the change agenda — where you're going, why you need to get there, what it is you're going to do, and how you're going to do it — those four questions clients have to ask, and answer, for themselves."
What's more, Gunn insists that leaders must be willing to change themselves as well. "They have to be the change they want to see in the institution," he says, echoing Gandhi's famous admonition: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Sandra Waddock, a professor of management at Boston College's Carroll School of Management, says that practicing mindfulness can produce substantial payoffs. "When leaders begin to understand that leadership is really about being in the moment — about getting people to become aware of their own deepest meaning and what the meaning of the organization is in the world — then you get a very different sense of loyalty, belonging, commitment, and willingness to work hard from people." Waddock, who recently taught a course called "Leadership and Mindfulness," says that awareness practices can help leaders cope with the ever-increasing complexity of the decisions they face.
The Proper State of Mind
If all this sounds a little mystical, Gunn's résumé is reassuringly conventional. During much of the 1980s and 1990s, first at A.T. Kearney and then his own firm, Gunn Partners, he helped Fortune 500 companies improve the efficiency of their finance and other staff functions. An expert on shared services, Gunn once helped CFO conduct its annual cost-management survey.
In the mid-1990s, Gunn started to focus on change leadership (there is a significant change-leadership component to SG&A improvement, he points out). At the same time, he was taking lessons from an executive coach. Gunn has also long been interested in Tibetan Buddhism, which emphasizes mindfulness and is "pragmatic and practical," he says.
Since its founding in 2004, Gunn's new firm has guided leadership teams in about a dozen large companies. He's selective about the clients he will take on: "Leading takes a tremendous amount of energy, and that energy comes from willpower. The question is, what's the fuel for that willpower? What's your deep, driving purpose? We have to resonate with that purpose." Accompli looks for executives who are not driven by ego, but talk instead about developing teamwork, cohesiveness, and leaders.
Gunn begins an engagement by helping members of the leadership team clarify their thinking and examine their assumptions. The goal is to get everyone "crystal clear" on the improvement agenda and how they will drive that agenda. That's not a fast process; at a large company it can take months for an action plan to evolve. "Every client is nervous at the front end of this," acknowledges Gunn. "Everybody has been down the path of false starts."
The right start for Gunn is from a state of presence. At the beginning of a meeting, Gunn may simply ask the managers seated around the table to voice "anything that would prevent them from being right here in the moment with us." And they do, whether it's family matters or business concerns or "this guy cut me off in the parking lot this morning." Another technique he uses to help people reach the proper state of mind is to ask them to acknowledge each other — to give a thank-you, say, for something someone did.
At first, clients rely on Gunn's long-practiced ability to be in the here and now. "If one person in a meeting is quiet-minded, it's a little infectious," he says. What does it feel like to be in that state? "It's actually accessing what it feels like when you're on vacation, but doing it in the work world. Everybody in the course of a day finds themselves in that state of mind for a moment. All we're trying to do is help them access that more easily and more routinely."
When everyone drops into a state of presence, says Gunn, the meeting can take off. "People get lighthearted. They feel more hopeful, less urgent. There's a lot of humor and laughter. They notice the clarity of their thinking. The biggest thing you see is an incredible pickup of the pace. An issue that would normally have taken a study, a presentation, and offline meetings can be tossed in the room and resolved in 20 minutes."
Back in the World
When a meeting adjourns and people return to their desks, they may be "stunned" at how noisy and disruptive everything is, admits Gunn. "It feels like chaos, and you lose faith sometimes — [the faith] that just by maintaining your own presence, you'll draw people toward you. But that's in fact what happens." The discipline of quieting down and staying in the present is a lifelong journey, he notes, "but you can get people over the hump of getting back into the rest of the environment almost immediately."
What are the hallmarks of leaders who are fully in the present? "Speed of action," says Gunn. "Boldness of action. Effectiveness of action. Releasing the energy of people in the organization who see their leaders and say, 'Holy cow, these people really have their act together!'"
And what about the results of such action? Consider Cardinal Health, the giant health-care products and services distributor. In 2004, Cardinal began to change from a holding company with multiple stand-alone businesses to an integrated operating company with three segments. Cardinal's strategic sourcing team, led by executive vice president Mark Hartman and vice president Bob Wagner, took a lead role in this change. Under Gunn's guidance, the 25 people on the team learned to access a state of presence, which in turn helped them develop a rapport with purchasing people and earn kudos for "connecting and listening."
"I was skeptical" of the approach at first, admits Hartman, but he soon became a convert. Gunn, he says, "clearly helped me unleash some creativity." Thanks in part to an innovative internal marketing effort, Hartman's sourcing team quickly won wide compliance with its negotiated deals. Eventually, the team produced savings in excess of $28 million, its year-one target, and it's well on its way to the $100 million mark.
Edward Teach is articles editor of CFO.
Author, Author, Author!
TV and ads let viewers create the content
March 6, 2007
Ever conscious of a good trend, TV networks and advertisers are adopting the YouTube model of viewer-created content.
VH1, currently airing the third season of "Web Junk 20," will next month premiere the Jack Black-hosted "Acceptable TV," which attempts to fuse TV with the Web. In February, Nickelodeon debuted a two-hour programming block called "ME:TV," featuring contributions from 10-year-olds. TLC last week began a six-part documentary series, "My Life as a Child," where children were given cameras to videotape their lives.
Also, high profile consumer-created ads for Doritos, Chevy and Dove ran during the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards.
But how well can TV play the Web's game? A large part of the appeal of video-sharing sites is that anyone can upload a video in a heartbeat, and that clips of Mentos exploding and men dancing are just a click away. Though now more interactive with on-demand features, television offers far less freedom for the viewer.
Instead, the appeal of amateur video on television is wrapped up in the idea that TV is still a superior medium to the Web -- it's the big leagues. You can drop your video into the online wilderness or -- as a game-show host might exclaim -- "You can be on TV!"
"As exciting as the Internet is, there's still something different and perhaps more glorious about your creation showing up on national television," says Tom Ascheim, executive vice president and general manager of Nickelodeon.
The channel's "ME:TV," which airs weekdays 5-7 p.m., includes videos submitted by kids (with parental permission) and a segment called "Web Wallers" where four participants are shown via Webcam. Cohost Jordan Carlos has called it "the ultimate mash-up of online and on-air."
Reality TV, of course, has been a huge beneficiary of the public's desire to be on TV -- as have older shows like "America's Funniest Home Videos" and "Candid Camera." But, now, contestants might shoot, edit and star in video that gets them on a program.
Current TV, now in about 40 million homes, predates the YouTube sensation with its viewer-created "pods," which make up a third of its programming. Joel Hyatt, who cocreated Current TV with Al Gore, says, Current wanted to level the playing field in television, rather than unveil itself as a Web site. But others wonder if TV should stick to what it knows best: professionally created content.
"Television is and has been in something of free-fall for quite a while -- just like the movies, just like the newspapers -- and they're doing everything they can to reverse it," says Martin Kaplan, professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Wisdom of the Crowds
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Professional Development while on Winter Vacation
This past week in Maine, USA we had our February Winter Break. For those of us who enjoy skiing and outdoor winter activities it was a stellar week. Well, almost, at the end of the week in ski country, we had some very windy days where the ski lifts were closed and since it was -25F below zero, I chose to stay home at camp, warm and cozy finishing up my readings, listenings and reflections for the K12 Online Conference. You are probably thinking wasn't the Conference was held back in October 2006? You are correct! But, since the activities are online, and FREE, you can access them whenever you would like. These online activities are getting better with age! This time I found a great podcast which jolted my thinking about continued professional development, something we are all dealing with, whether we are on the delivery end or the receiving end.
Listened to an event called Professional Development with Fries by Ewan McIntosh, from Edinburgh, Scotland. During Ewan's presentation, I imagined that Ewan was seated in an easy chair next to me talking and reflecting about his promotion of staff development and how to get people on board and trying these new technologies. We, in the technology field, all plan our workshops and and think of how to engage our learners no matter what their skill levels are. It was good to hear Ewan's recommendations. Recently, our staff participated in a NetDay survey.(The survey window is closed, but check it out next November.)
The results showed that about 56% of our staff feel they are average users of technology, 36% are advanced users and 10% feel that they are not as literate as their colleagues. While 66% of those surveyed feel they are somewhat prepared to use technology because of our district inservice, 20 % do not feel they've had enough training.(These results compare favorably with the nationwide results.)
However, when asked if their school was preparing students to compete for jobs and careers in the 21st Century only 19% responded yes, while the remaining 76% said no, or not sure and 3% had no opinion. This survey data scares me the most of all the data I saw. Ewan said, in his presentation, “we don't know what we don't know". I chose to share those two results since most of our staff feel like regular users of technology, while at the same time very few feel like we are preparing our students for their future.
The latest updated ISTE, NETS standards emphasize, first and foremost, thinking skills, logical problem solving skills, creative problem solving, collaborative work skills, research and information retrieval, digital citizenship, technology operations and concepts.
Many of us who train others to use technology in their classrooms have always maintained, it is not just about the technology. It is about good instruction. The latest standards show this.
However, the technology allows us to easily and immediately collaborate with a classroom down the street, across the state or around the globe. The results are more immediate and real; the telephony tools, blogs and wikis allow for conversations to be interactive rather than questions written, sent by mail, answered , then sent back.
Back to professional development! If only 19% of our staff feel we are preparing our students for the new century, then 80% of them (us) should be first in line for opportunities to collaborate and converse about the new web tools which will help facilitate the updated standards. We have the first wave of staff on board with technology, and, with their experiences and facilitation skills we can engage the rest of the staff to make the changes necessary for our learners. After all, would you still be going to your dentist if he or she was using equipment from the 1950's? or how about your car mechanic? I can't imagine taking my car in for a check up only to find my mechanic had not updated the shop with the computer necessary to diagnose my car -in a matter of minutes, I might add, especially with the hourly cost of labor.
I think it is time for all educators no matter where you (we) are on the technology continuum to actively participate in some kind of Web 2.0 collaboration. If you can use these collaboration tools such as blogs, podcasts, wikis and collaborative projects then you will likely engage your students in a project using these tools. Do it for the learners!
If you are among the 19% who feel we are preparing our students for the 21st Century, then maybe you can enlighten me on the kinds of jobs we are preparing our young people for. About all I can say, with confidence, is that our students need to understand GMT time zones in order that they can collaborate with others. Beyond that the sky or the universe is the limit. What do you think we should be preparing our students for?
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Hi Cheryl,
Nice article. How can we lobby for teachers and students to have more flexible learning environments? To collaborate around the world we need to sometimes operate on "world times".
Posted by: Sharon Betts | February 27, 2007 7:38 PM
I'm with Sharon. I think our teaching environments can be more flexible with the addition of Web 2.o tools to the classroom. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc contribute to anytime learning. Now for the world wide collaborative part...
Posted by: Alice Barr | March 6, 2007 12:34 AM