I have seen teens sitting next to each other and text or tweet - with each other - rather than actually talking! Or playing the same game on two GameBoy units for hours - three feet apart -without speaking one word to each other - except the odd giggle.
No wonder innovative teachers are turning to micro-blogging formats such as Twitter to communicate with students. Lucas Ames from Flint High School, VA required students to ponder history topics such as separation of church and state in 140 or few characters on Twitter. Debates became pretty lively due to the instantaneous nature of message delivery. It is the kind of interaction that every teacher dreams about.
In this example Twitter use started with teachers reaching out to locate instructional resources amongst themselves. Now they are using it to distribute assignments and to foster collaboration among students. (Kathleen Manzo - Education Week 10/16/2009).
Watch dogs are raising red flags claiming it (Twitter) is not a research-based tool. No one has an idea what the impact such applications will have in the long term. Some question the educational effectiveness of such tools or the implications of those quick, short-form communications.
It is not clear who sets the rules in usage, language, number of responses and so forth. Obviously a class would be a closed system where only the teacher and students are followers. Herein lies a risk of the teacher/student relationship being blurred and the lines of professionalism becoming gray.
It is estimated that on 12 million users between the ages of 3 and 17 use Twitter. This means that it has not been adopted by younger students yet, but young adults are the fastest growing sector of new users.
If e-mails are accepted as a form of communication between student, teacher and parent, then I do not see a problem using social networking such as Twitter. It should not replace text books, classroom 'face time', or assignments. But it can be handy to incorporate a segment of the student population who will be lost in a traditional school setting. It also beats pages upon pages of grading!
Michael Cordier
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Educational Crossroads
Headlines in just three daily newsletters highlight the dichotomy of education in America today. With billions of dollars flooding into the education system from stimulus funds there are battles erupting on how and where to spend it.
While the Department of Education in Hawaii announced to cut 18 school days - every Friday for the rest of the academic year - because there is no money in the budget to pay teachers, Kansas City, KS school board is proposing a program to address the leadership deficit among principals and other educations across all schools.
Interestingly 81% of teachers belonging to the teachers union in Hawaii voted for a shorter school year rather than taking a pay cut to serve their students. Kansas on the other hand is addressing the very essence of the problem: Leadership.
Despite the nearly $40 billion infused into state coffers to help steady education budgets, some states remain in dismal fiscal straights, forcing further cuts to K - 12 programs. And it is not going to get better with financial aid ending in 2011. Pennsylvania still has to finalize a budget, four months into the new fiscal year. New Mexico is having special sessions to consider further cuts to their budgets. In Michigan the Governor has line-item veto power and indicated that it will be used on the education budget. $165 per student in grants has been slashed.
State incomes for education have declined by $63 billion in the 2009 fiscal year according to the State University of New York. In Florida more than 60,000 people has left the state after the downturn in the housing market. That tax revenue will not come back and has a long term impact. The existing $1 billion shortfall this year would be closer to $2 billion without federal help next year.
Which leads to the cost of entitlement programs such as free and reduced lunches, after school care, before-school care, early childhood programs, women with infant programs, and hundreds of others. While all important, quality teachers providing quality education must triumph all other priorities.
Crossroads indeed for all things educational.
Michael Cordier
While the Department of Education in Hawaii announced to cut 18 school days - every Friday for the rest of the academic year - because there is no money in the budget to pay teachers, Kansas City, KS school board is proposing a program to address the leadership deficit among principals and other educations across all schools.
Interestingly 81% of teachers belonging to the teachers union in Hawaii voted for a shorter school year rather than taking a pay cut to serve their students. Kansas on the other hand is addressing the very essence of the problem: Leadership.
Despite the nearly $40 billion infused into state coffers to help steady education budgets, some states remain in dismal fiscal straights, forcing further cuts to K - 12 programs. And it is not going to get better with financial aid ending in 2011. Pennsylvania still has to finalize a budget, four months into the new fiscal year. New Mexico is having special sessions to consider further cuts to their budgets. In Michigan the Governor has line-item veto power and indicated that it will be used on the education budget. $165 per student in grants has been slashed.
State incomes for education have declined by $63 billion in the 2009 fiscal year according to the State University of New York. In Florida more than 60,000 people has left the state after the downturn in the housing market. That tax revenue will not come back and has a long term impact. The existing $1 billion shortfall this year would be closer to $2 billion without federal help next year.
Which leads to the cost of entitlement programs such as free and reduced lunches, after school care, before-school care, early childhood programs, women with infant programs, and hundreds of others. While all important, quality teachers providing quality education must triumph all other priorities.
Crossroads indeed for all things educational.
Michael Cordier
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Laptops a Must for Students?
According to Jon Bower, president of It's Learning, Inc, the Netbook is the next big thing to arrive in education. Due to cost, weight, and cloud computing more and more students can have access to one-to-one computing. With Netbooks the price is right, the weight is right, and basic learning functions can be performed.
The down side is that screen size could hamper some student progress and video, the most popular student application, is limited with the media capacity of a Netbook.
Bower's point is that we need to evaluate our student's educational needs before jumping on the latest bandwagon related to technology.
He has a point: the ponies comes before the wagon and not the other way around. Yet, H1N1 has forced educators to think about a delivery mechanism of education for large numbers of students who have to be 'quarantined' for two weeks or more. In case of an epidemic outbreak social networking will serve educators well and a product such as a Netbook can do miracles.
However students who attend on-line schooling will certainly find the Netbook inadequate. Viewing content on a screen smaller than 10 inches during a regular school day is difficult and the thought of creating large video files is none-existent.
If the goal is to make every student computer literate to have the competitive edge in a global economy then any computer is suffice to learn more than the basics. In such a case the Netbook is ideal for a host of applications. It will be a huge advantage above many professional teachers today who are still computer illiterate.
Bower's point is taken but the time has arrived to level the playing field for all students to have a computer, not just those in affluent schools or neighborhoods. The Netbook might just be the answer.
Michael Cordier
The down side is that screen size could hamper some student progress and video, the most popular student application, is limited with the media capacity of a Netbook.
Bower's point is that we need to evaluate our student's educational needs before jumping on the latest bandwagon related to technology.
He has a point: the ponies comes before the wagon and not the other way around. Yet, H1N1 has forced educators to think about a delivery mechanism of education for large numbers of students who have to be 'quarantined' for two weeks or more. In case of an epidemic outbreak social networking will serve educators well and a product such as a Netbook can do miracles.
However students who attend on-line schooling will certainly find the Netbook inadequate. Viewing content on a screen smaller than 10 inches during a regular school day is difficult and the thought of creating large video files is none-existent.
If the goal is to make every student computer literate to have the competitive edge in a global economy then any computer is suffice to learn more than the basics. In such a case the Netbook is ideal for a host of applications. It will be a huge advantage above many professional teachers today who are still computer illiterate.
Bower's point is taken but the time has arrived to level the playing field for all students to have a computer, not just those in affluent schools or neighborhoods. The Netbook might just be the answer.
Michael Cordier
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