Fintelo : Online Solution

Source: www.timesrecordnews.com

Smart phones now have hundreds of applications meant to educate kids — from graphic calculators to animation programs that teach spelling and phonics.

And while most public schools don’t allow the devices because they’re considered distractions — and sometimes portable cheating tools — some school districts have started to put the technology to use.

The key, educators say, is controlling the environment in which they are used.

In St. Mary’s, Ohio, a school district of 2,300 students is continuing a pilot program where third-, fourth- and fifth-graders are assigned PDAs for use as a learning tool in the classroom, and at home. They use applications created by a company called Go Know! to draw pictures and create sketches, journal and write essays, said Kyle Menchhofer, the district’s technology coordinator. Other applications create flash cards for spelling and math.

Students took the phones on a museum field trip where they took photos, uploaded them to a server where the teacher could view the assignment and wrote blurbs about what they saw.

In addition to the applications that students use, having the PDA teaches them responsibility, he said.

“Cell phones aren’t going away. Mobile technology isn’t going away,” he said. “Right now, what we’re telling kids is ‘You go home and use whatever technology you want, but when you get to school, we’re going to ask you to step back in time.’ It doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

The district started the program last school year with $40,000 and 60 Palm personal data devices that were handed out to students. Menchhofer said teachers who used to wait weeks to use computer labs were now able to use technology right in their classrooms — and students love it.

But there are many questions districts face before opening the door to allow cell phones: If children had their own, fancier phones, would they be allowed those instead of school-issued devices? How would they fund PDAs in larger districts?

And do kids really need technology always at their fingertips?

Orlando, Fla., dad Ken Schneider says he doesn’t want his two daughters, ages 12 and 19, to be distracted in class by buzzing phones or text messages. Still, he says a limited, school-sponsored version is a good idea.

“A very controlled form of communication would be great,” he said. “To the extent you can build computer literacy at the youngest age, it’s great. That’s where the world is moving.”

In St. Mary’s, parents and district officials decided to expand the program for the upcoming school year. Text and cell phone applications are shut off, so the data plan will cost about $17 a month per phone. The phones are free because of government pricing, but students will have to foot the bill if they’re lost or broken.

It’s worth it, Menchhofer argues. “We need to teach them to be responsible users of cell phones,” he said. “There’s a right time and a wrong time to use them.”

Elliot Soloway, the creator of Go Know!, which developed the software, said trying to sell it was a slog for years because of the cell phone ban in most schools. But he said he thinks it’s about to change because he’s been getting increasing requests.

“Kids want to use the same tools inside school they use when they walk out the door,” he said. “Kids don’t worry about small screen sizes or typing trouble. Kids today are the mobile generation and it’s time we embraced this as a way to better educate our students.”

But the purported educational value of the cell phones doesn’t seem to sway most school districts, including New York, the largest in the country with a million students. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is in charge of the schools, emphasized his opposition in a recent speech to National Urban League executives, who exploded into applause.

“You come to school to learn, he declared, “not to play games or send text messages.”

Parents are eager for their kids to have every educational tool available but have mixed feelings about whether cell phones are useful in the classroom.

But parent John Leaf in Milwaukee wondered about the disadvantages for kids whose parents can’t afford cell phones for them outside of school.

“If my kids have good cell phones and it helps them perform academically, that’s great. But what about the kids who don’t have cell phones ore the latest applications?”

His daughter, Erin, 14, is going to be a freshman at Homestead High School outside Milwaukee. She uses her phone in designated areas at school for practical reasons, to call her mom or to schedule rides. She likes the idea of using PDAs in class, but doesn’t think it’s necessary.

“Anything that helps to better educate me I’d use,” she said. “But cell phones are such a distraction from school. I never use it in class now because I’m too busy paying attention.”

‘Race to the Top’ program favors states that encourage charter schools — including those that offer online instruction

Source: eschoolnews.com

As states compete for more than $4 billion in federal “Race to the Top” stimulus grants, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has made it clear that states willing to embrace charter schools and other favored innovations will get preference. That, in turn, could prompt a rise in the number of virtual charter schools and other charters that open across the country.

Eleven states have said no to charter schools so far, though some of these states operate state-run virtual schools. They soon might pay a penalty for their choice.

The power Duncan wields through his use of the federal Race to the Top fund to spur the kind of school reforms favored by President Obama puts state lawmakers in a tough spot. Many teachers’ union members strongly oppose charter schools, most of which employ non-union teachers. And school districts themselves don’t like giving up resources to the schools, which get government dollars but operate independently from the local school board.

But supporters of charter schools–the president and Duncan among them–think they are key to turning around failing schools, in part because charter operators have a strong motivation for boosting student achievement. If kids don’t do well, the schools can be shut down.

Charter schools also can keep kids in school longer, offer more one-on-one attention, and try different ways of teaching and learning–including fully online or blended (both face-to-face and online) instruction.

Duncan recently wrote in an opinion piece, declaring that states with limitations on charter school will decrease their odds of getting Race to the Top grants. Duncan has proposed a rating system to separate the winners from the losers, noting that not every state will get a share of the grant money.

At the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Conference this summer, Duncan called the charter movement “one of the most profound changes in American education–bringing new options to underserved communities and introducing competition and innovation into the education system.”

Starting at a competitive disadvantage will be 10 states that have never allowed charter schools: Alabama, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia. An eleventh, Mississippi, which recently let its charter schools law expire, is expected to adopt a new law when its Legislature convenes in 2010.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire says her state has a shot at some of the education reform money, but not as much as if it had a charter law.

Washington state has rejected charter schools three times in eight years. In 2004, voters repealed a charter school law after a hard-fought campaign reportedly financed largely by the statewide teacher’s union, which argued that charters would siphon money from other public schools.

Unions and their members do not oppose all charter schools, but they do want more say in how teachers are chosen. The American Federation of Teachers is actively seeking a bigger role in charter schools and has helped to unionize several.

Gregoire, who recently talked with Duncan about the grants, is hoping to convince the education secretary that her state has other creative programs and is willing to change.

“The secretary was clear, that’s what they’re looking for–nontraditional schools that allow students to excel,” Gregoire said. “I would like to show him some of our alternative schools and get his feedback.”

Charter school groups and education experts say creativity might not be enough, and Duncan might decide to use states like Washington as an example of what happens when you don’t give the president what he wants.

Todd Ziebarth, vice president of policy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, thinks Duncan will want to reward states that are strong in all the elements, forcing states like Washington back to the table on charters.

“I think they’re in for a rude awakening,” Ziebarth said.

Virtual charter schools are growing in popularity across the country, Ziebarth added. Indiana is opening its first statewide online charter school this year, and five organizations have filed petitions with Georgia’s Charter School Commission to open virtual charter schools in the state, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the state’s sole online charter school, the Georgia Virtual Academy.

The academy has nearly 4,500 students enrolled in just two years of operation and a growing waiting list. But the school serves only kindergarten through eighth grade, which has created a void in virtual education for high school students, said Andrew Broy, head of the charter school division for the state Department of Education. Broy said it’s not likely the commission will approve all five of the schools, but at least one probably will get the Georgia panel’s nod.

Still, only 18 states have moved forward in creating policies to support virtual charter schools, and “the demand from students and parents shows how important these options are for preparing students for the 21st century,” said Susan Patrick, president and chief executive of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning.

Patrick said she agrees the administration’s use of stimulus funding as a carrot for encouraging broad school reforms could lead to the creation of more virtual charter schools nationwide.

Duncan has been putting states on notice for months that he wants them to embrace charter schools, and that their failure to do so could mean they lose out on federal money. Still, he has not said outright that charter school bans will disqualify states from the grants.

One of the administration’s highest priorities is teacher accountability, and Duncan has publicly identified only one area that will bar states from getting a share of the money: a ban on using student achievement data to evaluate teachers.

He says the separation of teachers from test data is a major obstacle to the administration’s goal of financially rewarding the best teachers.

Even so, Duncan has been a champion of charter schools, noting that the best are known for creativity, flexibility, and making a measurable difference for kids in large urban school districts. Advocates say charters offer an alternative to parents who want options beyond their neighborhood schools.

Some states already have gotten the message.

Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill expanding charter schools in the state after hearing Tennessee could lose out on the money if they kept blocking an expansion of charter schools. Illinois lawmakers decided in July to allow 60 more charter schools to answer President Obama’s challenge after a campaign in that state by the state network of charter schools.

Commissioner Susan A. Gendron of the Maine Department of Education, where attempts to pass a charter schools law have failed, also is listening.

Gendron believes the department is waiting to award some of the money to give states without charter laws, like Washington or Maine, time to get charters on the books.

Both the schools chief and the governor of Maine supported a bill that didn’t make it through the 2009 Legislature, and Gendron expects another attempt in 2010.

“While he hasn’t come right out and said we won’t get funding, the latest language is it will absolutely negatively impact our rating in the race to the top,” Gendron said of Duncan.

Source: eschoolnews.com

By: Maya T. Prabhu

Education experts are split after a recent proposal published by some influential members of the Democratic Party suggested the government provide electronic reading devices to every student in the United States.

The New Democratic Leadership Council’s (DLC) paper, “A Kindle in Every Backpack: A proposal for eTextbooks in American Schools,” published July 14, states that government should supply each student in the country with an electronic reading device, allowing textbooks to be cheaply distributed and updated. It also would allow teachers to tailor an interactive curriculum that engages digital age learners.

“This proposal is just a concept, an idea to be refined and improved with more dialogue and input,” said the proposal’s author, Thomas Z. Freedman, a senior fellow at the DLC who served as a member of the 2008 presidential Obama-Biden Transition Project on the Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform Policy Working Group.

Although a rapid-scale plan would initially cost $9 billion more than providing traditional textbooks during the first four years of implementation, writes Freedman, school districts would save $700 million in the fifth year and $500 million annually in the years immediately following.

“While the upfront hardware cost of providing a Kindle-like device to every child would necessitate a high front-end investment, costs for eTextbooks themselves would quickly produce a savings compared with print textbooks,” he writes. “If we create savings in one category, the funds can be reassigned to others, like improving teacher pay.”

Freedman added that innovation and advancements in eReader technology would drive the cost of the devices and eBooks down over time, continuing to save money for years after replacing traditional textbooks.

But Peter Von Stackelberg, foresight expert at Social Technologies and adjunct professor at the State University of New York College of Technology at Alfred, said the odds of the Kindle DX completely replacing books are slim.

“Paper-based information delivery systems–aka books, magazines, and newspapers–have a number of features that have been successfully used for centuries. Books are an effective method for displaying text and images in a wide variety of lighting conditions at relatively low cost….Annotation and highlighting of selected information is done easily with pencils, pens, and highlighters,” he said. “The user interface is simple and effective.”

Replacing textbooks and materials with eReaders can cause other problems in the name of saving money, said Corinne A. Gregory, president and founder of SocialSmarts, a schools-based program that integrates social skills, character, and values into core curricula.

“If [the proposal] is trying to lower the cost of textbooks and materials, then you have to consider some other potential problems, such as instead of losing one text book, what happens if a child loses–or has stolen–[his or her] Kindle? Who will bear the cost of the replacement? The students and parents? The schools?” she asked.

“Purportedly, having an electronic reader will be beneficial to students, giving them another technology avenue for education. However — when the studies continue to show that our kids’ brains are negatively affected by too much ‘electronic time,’ and [are] being overwhelmed by multi-tasking — is requiring them to now read and do all their schoolwork electronically a good thing?” Gregory continued.

According to the DLC proposal, current estimates show that $109 per student is spent for traditional textbooks and more than $6 billion is spent annually on textbooks across the education system.

“For the money we’re spending, we should expect a top-notch product. Instead, we send students off to school with woefully out-of-date materials,” Freedman writes. “An eTextbook can be updated across the country as soon as the new [text] is written…Textbook authors and publishers can update specific parts of texts without having to undertake a whole new print run.”

Using a digital textbook system would let districts, schools, and individual teachers pick and choose the best materials for their students, Freedman said.

But that control by publishers could cause problems down the line, said E. William Horne, who manages the security solutions group of William Warren Consulting, a company that specializes in providing secure, cost-effective solutions to businesses and professionals who want more effective and flexible solutions to data-processing challenges. He argues that censorship could become routine.

“Even if the Kindle device is ‘owned’ by the government, the problem remains [that] publishers will be able…to censor controversial works to make sales. With paper books, it’s not economically viable to print separate version[s]. With eBooks, it’s easy,” he said. “This means that any book a local school department–any local school department–doesn’t like will be offered in several version[s], each tailored to the tastes of the local bureaucrats in question.”

On the other hand, lightening a student’s load — both physically and financially — could be a plus: Miami Dade Community College adjunct faculty member and advisor Isabel L. Fernandez said after purchasing a Kindle for personal use, the first thing she thought was how the eReader could be used by students to carry their textbooks.

“Aside from the obvious advantages of an eReader versus textbooks from a physical burden perspective, the cost of printed textbooks is impacted,” she said. “Many students don’t buy textbooks because they simply can’t afford them. I’m all for finding ways to put textbooks into students’ hands.”

Freedman argues that providing eReaders to students nationwide will combat disparities in learning experiences.

“It’s a sad reality that economically deprived schools and districts generally lag in educational success,” he said. “We’re only going to be the best educated country in the world when we provide an adequate education to every child, and that means a plan that puts eTextbooks in everyone’s hands. If there is no coherent plan to share this new technology, wealthier school districts will, once again, reap most of the immediate benefits.”

However, Jing Lei, assistant professor of instructional design, development, and evaluation with Syracuse University’s school of education, said she doesn’t think a nationwide push to put eReaders in students’ hands is the best approach. To effect the greatest amount of improvement, she said, the initiative should focus on low-income and disadvantaged school districts.

“. . . For students from wealthy families, they have technology resources in the school.They have textbooks. And when they go home, even when they cannot bring textbooks home, they have a lot of books to read; they have other resources. They can play, they can learn,” Lei said.

“But for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, they have textbooks in the school, but when they go home, they do not have as many learning opportunities as students from wealthy backgrounds. I think that’s where a program like this can make the most difference. For a lot of schools, especially schools that have many technology resources already, adding one more Kindle to every student’s backpack is not going to make much difference,” she said.

Freedman argues that putting an eReader tool in every backpack will improve education while lowering its cost.

“We fail our students when we ask them to learn advanced skills with dated, inflexible textbooks. Instead of sending our children to school every day with the textbook equivalent of an abacus, we need to provide them with up-to-date tools already available to American consumers,” he said.

Freedman acknowledges that eReaders won’t solve all the challenges facing education.

“Kindle-like devices alone can’t solve the problem, but they can be an integral part of the overall solution. If our schools are going to be better, then we need to provide cost-effective instructional materials that reduce pressure on budgets and improve the tools our children use to learn,” he said.

As social networking sites explode in popularity, they have become the prime avenue for many job hunters

Source: www.businessweek.com

By: Jordan Golson

The Internet has changed a lot of things over the past decade or two—including how we search for jobs. Sure, the basics are the same: Find an opening and apply for it. But the Web has permanently altered the employment process. And with more than 1.2 million info tech jobs lost this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a lot of people are going to be using every tool they can get to find their next job.

While networking is (and has traditionally been) the best way to find a new job, the second-most effective tool is another type of networking: sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, according to a poll released Aug. 17 by placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Old-school employment search tricks like attending job fairs and reading newspaper classifieds got the lowest ratings. Here’s how the Web is changing how we look for jobs.

Social networking sites are exploding in popularity, as people look to connect with pretty much everyone they know, from friends to co-workers to potential employers. Facebook claims it has more than 250 million users; Twitter’s traffic has grown tenfold in the past year; and LinkedIn—while not as flashy as its social networking brethren—is perhaps the most useful of the bunch for job hunting because of its employment- and recommendation-focused profiles. It’s seen its total visitors double since last year.

Fun with Fund-Raising

Employment-focused Web sites have been popular with VCs as well as job seekers. Job search engine Simply Hired recently raised $4.6 million in a fourth round of funding, and Glassdoor, an anonymous employer and salary review site, raised a $6.5 million Series B round last fall.

At the same time, it’s estimated that privately held Craigslist will generate more than $100 million in revenue this year, a 24% jump over the 2008 estimate, with much of that revenue coming from job listings. Meanwhile, for America’s newspapers, total revenue from job listings, a former cash cow for the industry, dropped 42.5% in 2008, to $2.2 billion, the worst drop in history, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

Other job search sites, like Monster.com and CareerBuilder, which charge significantly more than Craigslist to list jobs, are also seeing huge increases in traffic, with 33% more visits overall, according to ComScore. Yahoo has reportedly been looking for a buyer for its HotJobs site, and given the growth of the sector, will probably make a pretty penny as newly installed Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz looks to shed “noncore” assets.

The Internet is definitely making a huge impact on how we search for jobs, but as the Challenger survey notes, the ease of sending out shotgun blasts of résumés and hoping one hits the right recruiter is making things much more difficult for employers as well. “[F]or every qualified candidate who comes in from the Internet, there are 10 to 20 who do not even come close to being a good fit,” said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “Those who rely on one tool [for their job search]…will take longer to find a position. The problem with the ease and accessibility of the Internet is that many job seekers make it their primary job search tool.”

Source: www.tmcnet.com

Kingsland Public Schools is considering an alternative school schedule in which students would spend four days in a traditional classroom setting with the fifth day of instruction delivered via technology and computer.

District officials say the proposal remains at the discussion stage, but could be implemented as early the second semester of this academic year. The plan, called i4Knights, was introduced to the school board last month.

“Kingsland is no different than any other district in the state. Everybody is sick and tired of making budget cuts. And if this is an alternative way to offer more, then it needs to be looked at,” said school board chairman Mitch Lentz.

Confronted with a $440,000 shortfall this spring, the 800-student district eliminated two elementary school positions, two paraprofessionals positions and the business education program from the curriculum, as well as enacted a 10 percent cut for all departments.

Officials stress the proposal should not be viewed as a four-day school week, because the fifth day — or digital day — would be a school day also. Only in this case, the instruction would be delivered at a remote location, such as at home, the library, daycare center or the computer lab at school. The district rejected the idea of a four-day school week because it did little more than lengthen the days.

Kingsland Superintendent Darrin Strosahl says i4Knights could have other benefits.

“If you try a different approach, you could engage some that are not engaged right now,” Strosahl said.

Students who don’t have Internet access might gather at a home that does in a manner similar to car pooling. Administrators say a digital day might have students holding an online class discussion from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Or they might be given a project to do on their own.

So far the reaction of students and some teachers has been muted, because so little is known about it. Denise Erichsen, a Kingsland kindergarten teacher who worked on the committee that developed the new schedule, said teachers would adjust.

Molly Greiner, a Kingsland junior, said she knows too little about i4Knights to form a strong opinion, but some things sound appealing to her.

“I would be OK. I’d like it,” Greiner said. “You could do your stuff on your computer.”

Source: www.examiner.com

By: Jennifer Tanke

Computer labs: they abound in almost every elementary school nowadays. But as a teacher, are you really making good use of them? While there may not be a technology section on your students’ report cards, it is something they should become accustomed to as early as possible.

Source: www.wbjournal.com

By: Debra M. Townsley

With an unemployment rate expected to top 10.4 percent this September, every college must take an active role to help its graduates successfully take that first career leap. I consider professional career preparation and its ability to realize a return on educational investment an essential service to college students and their parents and an important learning outcome.

It takes four years to earn an academic degree and realistically, four years for career services to help students strategically plan to get what they want so they can enter satisfying careers critical to American society. While there are many factors contributing to a successful job search, the résumé has traditionally taken center stage.

In the spring of 2009, Nichols College Career Services surveyed 780 hiring managers about résumé preferences, and we found some surprising results.

Out With The Old

Technology has fundamentally changed how the résumé is formatted and viewed, with experts predicting that within three years, the paper résumé will be passé. In its place, a digital résumé must be fine-tuned with keywords strategically placed to grab the attention of an employer within seven seconds.

Proper keyword use is vital for increasing one’s employability. Most companies prefer that applicants submit résumés by e-mail or web-based systems. Then, the résumé content is imported into databases. Hiring managers search these databases, as well as Internet posting boards, such as Monster.com, for job-specific keywords that relate to vacancies.

Keywords are usually noun phrases, such as “marketing campaigns,” “customer database,” and “distribution control,” and today, our experts estimate that 80-85 percent of all résumés are electronically searched in this manner.

In addition, the majority of employers responding to our survey prefer a résumé showcasing related experience in chronological order.

But college students, without significant job experience, must focus on a qualitative résumé, one which maximizes the full breadth of an individual’s skill set and leverages classroom projects, a portfolio, and internship experiences to career goals.

It takes practice to write a well-crafted résumé.

Nichols students write a draft in their second-year professional development seminar, a mandatory four-year program of one-credit classes designed to help students explore majors and careers and develop their interviewing skills and portfolios.

This first résumé attempt is usually an eye-opener, as students see more gaps than substance. It’s an early call for action, encouraging sophomores to participate in campus activities, seek out volunteer opportunities, and examine internship prospects.

Our survey also confirmed that recruiters are using social networking sites, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, to qualify candidates for interviewing and are reducing their student-to-recruiter visits. Therefore, we have expanded career instruction to include best practices for using social networking sites and have taken steps to increase employer participation in our Annual Career Fair, one of the largest in Central Massachusetts.

Nichols juniors and seniors are encouraged to bring their portfolios to the fair and “leave-behind” a personalized CD which includes a digital résumé and samples of their work.

Of Nichols’ Class of 2008, 95 percent were employed within six months of graduation with an average annual salary of $40,000. This summer, our career services staff has painstakingly contacted every 2009 graduate without a job for additional coaching, as well as encouraged our newest alumni to join our summer Job Club.

With this additional assistance, we trust that our 2009 graduates will be able to navigate through these troubled economic waters and do as well as our 2008 graduates. After all, their success is our business.

Source: http://chronicle.com

By: Erica Hendry

‘Crowdsourcing,’ the notion of using the wisdom of the crowd for sites like Wikipedia, could be making its way into academe as a grading method that holds students more accountable.

A professor at Duke University plans to test just that this fall, when she leaves the evaluation of class assignments up to her students, using crowdsourcing to make students responsible for grading each other.

Learning is more than earning an A says Cathy N. Davidson, the professor, who recently returned to teach English and interdisciplinary studies after eight years in administration. But students don’t always see it that way. Vying for an A by trying to figure out what a professor wants or through the least amount of work has made the traditional grading scale superficial, she says.

“You’ve got this real mismatch between the kind of participatory learning that’s happening online and outside of the classroom, and the top-down, hierarchical learning and rigid assessment schemes that we’re using in the classroom from grades K through 12 and all the way up to graduate school,” Ms. Davidson says. “In school systems today, we’re putting more and more emphasis on quantitative assessment in an era when, out of the classroom, students are learning through an entirely different way of collaboration, customizing, and interacting.”

Ms. Davidson will pilot the grading approach to this fall in her class “This Is Your Brain on the Internet,” which combines neuroscience and technology. Fifteen students, in rotating teams of two, are assigned to lead each class session, calling on a list of texts, Web sites and other materials Ms. Davidson provides to facilitate discussion and give assignments. Those students are also responsible for reading each student’s “assignment,” which is posted on his or her blog, and evaluating whether that work is satisfactory. If the work is deemed unsatisfactory, a student has the opportunity to redo it.

“Do all the work, you get an A. Don’t need an A? Don’t have time to do all the work? No problem. You can aim for and earn a B. There will be a chart. You do the assignment satisfactorily, you get the points. Add up the points, there’s your grade. Clearcut. No guesswork. No second-guessing ‘what the prof wants.’ No gaming the system,” Ms. Davidson wrote Sunday in a blog post detailing her strategy on hastac.org (pronounced “haystack”), the acronym for “humanities, arts, science, and technology-advanced collaboration.,” which she co-founded.

Her incoming students aren’t aware of her plans for the semester — but Sunday’s post, in which she explained how she would grade and also included a copy of the syllabus, already had 1,300 hits by Monday, with comments both supporting and doubting her method.

Some came from those who had tried the method and failed, as one educator from Buffalo wrote, because groups of students blindly and consistently marked up or down other students’ work “in order to increase their own grade in the class favorably, and hurt others’ grades.” Others, like a professor from New York University, saw success in a crowdsource grading approach for a large, interdisciplinary undergraduate courses.

Still others defended the traditional grading system. One professor, though hesitant to call the American grading system an “absolute good,” said allowing students to start at an A, or earn an A by merely completing assignments, was equating “doing fine” — which would earn a ‘C’ in his own classes — to “doing excellent,” which should earn an A.

“We ought to take the idea of excellence very, very seriously,” he wrote.

Still, Ms. Davidson says she’s optimistic about how the grading system will affect her classes and the way her students learn.

“Education is way behind just about everything else in dealing with these [media and technology] changes,” she said. It’s important to teach students how to be responsible contributors to evaluations and assessment. Students are contributing and assessing each other on the Internet anyway, so why not make that a part of learning?”

Source: www.usnews.com

By: Mortimer Zuckerman

Millions more for education! You’ve heard it before, and the results have disappointed. Now, the Obama administration has announced a $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund—and it could be different this time around. It’s the largest pot ever in the history of discretionary funding for education reform for grades K through 12. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan calls it “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to address a fundamental problem: Just 71 percent of students graduate from high school within four years. And the numbers for minorities are worse: 58 percent for Hispanics and 55 percent for African-Americans.

This time around, can we restore the great American tradition of providing a good free education, as we did in the 19th and 20th centuries? And can we attune it to the need of our time for analytic thinking, problem solving, independence, and the ability to seek out and assimilate new knowledge? I believe we can if we focus on the right key.

There is unanimous agreement on what that key is: better teachers. On average, children with a very good teacher will learn 1 ½ years of material in a school year. Those with a bad teacher will learn only half a year’s worth—a difference of a year’s learning in a single year. There is more variation in student achievement between classrooms in the same school than there is between schools. In other words, it is better to have a good teacher in a bad school than a bad teacher in a good school. A teacher in the top quartile of effectiveness can raise a student from the lowest quartile of the national achievement distribution to the highest quartile, an increase of 50 percentiles, in just three years.

Force multiplier. Teacher effects dwarf school effects and are much stronger than class-size effects. We would have to cut the average class almost in half to pick up the same benefit that a student gets after switching from the average teacher to a teacher in the 85th percentile. Halving the class size would require that we build twice as many classrooms and have twice as many teachers, an impossible financial challenge.

But how can we identify a potentially good teacher? How can average teachers become better teachers? The secretary’s special funding could make a crucial difference by financing a national program exploiting the electronic miracles of the Internet and video. We could escape geography by using the technology to have the best teachers appear in hundreds of thousands of disparate classrooms. This is a force multiplier. The classrooms would be equipped with a large, flat-screen monitor with whiteboards on either side; the monitor would be connected to a school server that contains virtually all of the lessons for every subject taught in the school, from kindergarten through 12th grade. The contents would use animation, video, dramatization, and presentation options to deliver complete lessons, to convey ideas in unique ways that are now unavailable in conventional classrooms. The classroom teachers would play the role of enhancers, answering questions and helping students better understand the material covered electronically; they’d pause the presentation to ask questions and to prompt critical thinking. The whiteboard would be the platform for student involvement.

Technology-teaching would relieve the burden on teachers to prepare content for every lesson each day. It would help to teach special skills, such as foreign languages, that many regular schools may not otherwise be able to afford. It could also provide sophisticated remedial programs, especially in the most common problem areas of math and reading. Failing to learn in the primary years how to decode letters and sounds quickly, automatically, and unconsciously into words, phrases, and sentences often becomes a lifetime handicap. These programs would benefit millions upon millions of American students.

What’s more, technology-teaching would make it easier for students with special needs, as well as the early high achievers, to get the attention they deserve. It would also enable principals and administrators to identify their most effective teachers—and the duds.

All of the above is brilliantly outlined in a new book called Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of American Education by Terry M. Moe and John E. Chubb. It will take a major federal effort to accomplish this. Duncan should include such a program in his Race to the Top for K through 12. Schools throughout the country would then have access to best-teacher courses, a marvelous payoff for the educational achievements that gave America and the world the technology in the first place.

Source: www.insidehighered.com

By: Scott Jaschik