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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 26022
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - 11:21 pm: | 
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More Indiana students enroll in dual credit classes
Associated Press via the Indianapolis Business Journal
August 25, 2010
More than 21,000 Indiana high school students earned college credits through Ivy Tech Community College last year, marking a growing trend officials say saved parents more than $10 million in tuition bills.
Ivy Tech enrolled 21,126 dual enrollment students during the 2009-2010 school year, up 27 percent from about 16,500 students the previous year. Dual credit courses are typically taught in high schools but are aligned with college standards so they can count toward both a high school and college diploma.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 26007
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 - 10:07 pm: |
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Misinterpreting the story
By Greg Sargent / Albany (NY) Times Union
August 24, 2010
 This is an example of some of the media literacy issues students should be learning about in high school. Current courses are hit and miss on media literacy, if offered at all.
Everyone is obsessing over the new Pew Research Center finding that the share of Americans who wrongly think President Obama is Muslim has risen to nearly one-fifth. But consider the amazing nugget buried in the poll's internals: 60 percent of those who believe that say they "learned" it from the media.
The poll asked those who maintain that Obama is a Muslim: "And how did you learn about Barack Obama's religion?" Respondents were allowed to give as many as three from a list of answers. Responses broke down to:
Media: 60 percent
Obama's behaviors or his own words: 11 percent
Things heard or read (nonspecific): 7 percent
Internet: 7 percent
Things heard or read during presidential campaign: 6 percent
Views of family or friends: 4 percent
Obama's ancestry -- family background, name, appearance: 4 percent
My own opinion: 1 percent
Obama's policies toward Muslim countries or religion in the United States: 1 percent
An additional 7 percent said "other," and 2 percent said they did not know or did not designate an answer.
Until now, the common explanation for the phenomenon has been to blame it on viral Internet campaigns and word of mouth. But only 7 percent of those who believe Obama is Muslim said they learned it from the Internet, and a substantial majority cited the media as their primary source.
I'm not sure what to make of this. Maybe some on the right have succeeded in creating an alternate reality that really is impenetrable. Maybe traditional news organizations haven't been forceful enough in knocking down the lies. Or maybe there's a segment of folks so distrustful of the mainstream media that they believe the opposite of what they are told.
Or maybe it's partly a result of the constant drumbeat of criticism of Obama from media figures and elected officials alike who carefully avoid saying outright that Obama is Muslim but claim his policies reveal him to be more on "their side" than on "ours." Perhaps that type of talk -- and the respectful, uncritical coverage it tends to receive from news outlets that are reluctant to call out the obvious insinuation lurking beneath it -- create an atmosphere that makes people more willing to flirt with the idea that the president isn't who he says he is.
Or maybe it's some combination of all these. In any case, it's very depressing.
People don't believe Obama is a Muslim, they just say they do in polls. Why do they do that? It's simple. Calling Obama a Muslim is intended as a pejorative. For whatever reasons, people increasingly don't seem to care for Obama's policies and results. Given a survey that essentially offers a choice between praiseworthy Christianity and dubious Islam, some people will chose Islam regardless of what they believe the truth is because they want to injure Obama's character and/or diminish his power.
Greg Sargent writes a blog on domestic politics and debate in Congress for The Washington Post at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 25993
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 22, 2010 - 12:10 am: |
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Will Your Next Doctor Be a Robot?
By KEVIN MANEY / Daily Finance
08/21/10
Next year, when IBM's Watson computer competes live against human contestants on Jeopardy, think of this: The machine might be your next doctor.
A projected doctor shortage has been making headlines in the U.S. since the passage in March of health-care reform, which is expected to give 32 million more Americans health insurance by 2014. At the same time, enrollment in medical schools is going down. One report by the Association of American Medical Colleges predicts a shortfall of 150,000 doctors in the U.S. in the next 15 years. Europe, Japan, New Zealand and other countries are facing similar challenges in health care.
Most of the proposed solutions involve incentives to get more students into medical schools. There's another way to attack the problem: create artificial intelligence doctors that can handle a lot of routine medical questions, easing the traffic to doctors to check out a rash or a child's fever. Sure, robots may not have the same bedside manner as human doctors. But the idea is that they wouldn't replace doctors, but would allow the human physicians to focus on more serious care.
By God, if robots can treat patients, they can teach public school students.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 25827
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - 11:05 pm: |
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Indiana virtual school to enroll students
Indiana Connections Academy to serve first- through eighth-graders.
By KIM KILBRIDE / South Bend (IN) Tribune Staff Writer
July 14. 2010
How about that. Some states continue to innovate despite the rough economy. NY is stuck in the '60s when it comes to freeing students from classrooms.
Mind you, virtual schools have only some attributes of schools designed for The 21st Century Student. They mostly replicate the classroom environment and subject-based curriculum. What they need to do is integrate subjects into a compelling adventure story that replicates real-life problems and rewards. Education needs to replicate learning before the existence of the factory model of public education.
If you live in Indiana, your first- through eighth-grader has a new option for attending public school online. And it's free.
Indiana Connections Academy Virtual Pilot School is now enrolling students.
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The charter school, which is funded via state education dollars, will serve some 280 students, said Pat Laystrom, a spokeswoman.
There still are openings at every grade level, she said Tuesday, but she expects those to fill by fall.
With the exception of field trips around the state, students complete all of their lessons from home with the guidance of a learning coach — typically a parent — and a certified teacher who works with them in live, online classrooms and over the phone, Laystrom said.
Every student has a personalized learning plan, she said, that addresses their academic, as well as non-academic, needs.
Extracurricular activities and electives — most virtual — are available as well, she said.
Offerings range from online chess clubs that pit students against others from across the country to a student newspaper to science and robotics clubs.
Laystrom said the school will serve a wide range of kids, from those who are ahead or behind academically, to those who simply need a different school environment.
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Connections Academy has 18 public schools in 17 states.
The organization also has a nationally accredited private virtual school called National Connections Academy that serves students in states in which the virtual public-school option is not available, Laystrom said.
Indiana Connections Academy is the second virtual charter school in Indiana, said Lauren Auld, spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Education.
Hoosier Academies, a combination virtual and bricks and mortar school that opened in 2008-09, was the first.
For information about Hoosier Academies, check out www.k12.com/ha/how_it_works/virtual-pilot-school.
Those who can't make Thursday's meeting but would like more information about Indiana Connections Academy can check out www.connectionsacademy.com.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 25801
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 11, 2010 - 9:17 pm: |
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Classroom cameras not the answer
A Jackson (TN) Sun Editorial
July 11, 2010
Cameras should be in classrooms for at least 2 reasons. One is for absent students to watch live or recorded to help them with missed work. The other is for parents to view. 50 years ago, parents were in many classrooms, almost daily. They have been banished from today's classrooms, especially in NY. A public school that bans parents from classrooms doesn't deserve the public name. Cameras are a great way to get parents back in the game, which is exactly why public schools won't do it.
The Jackson Madison County Board of Education was wise to pass on a proposal to place video cameras in school classrooms. Meeting the education technology needs of our schools is far more important than any benefit that might arise from costly classroom monitoring cameras. Let's spend tax dollars on education, not on surveillance.
The idea came from school board member Bill Baxter. He requested a proposal for a pilot program to evaluate video cameras in the schools. The school system's chief of technology, Chuck Jones, offered two alternatives to board members.
One option would place cameras in all classrooms at Tigrett Middle School and Madison Academic Magnet High School at a cost of $139,740. An alternative would place 10 cameras in each school at a cost of $44,190. Neither option garnered much support from other board members. Still, Baxter requested it be placed on the school board meeting agenda for consideration.
When he made a motion to adopt the lower-cost option, the proposal did not get a second. He said he would not give up on the idea.
Baxter, a former Marine, is a strong disciplinarian who believes in individual accountability. A camera surveillance system would put students and teachers on notice that they are being watched and would be held accountable for their behavior. A camera system also would add a level of school security.
We would argue that the school system is not running a military operation or an incarceration facility. The added security of a camera system must be weighed against cost, the history of security problems in our schools, alternative security options and other education needs. Discipline and accountability issues also can be addressed in less intrusive and less costly ways.
We agree with Jackson-Madison County Education Association President Janis Carroll that the board doesn't have to spend $100,000 on cameras to send a clear message to students that they are in school to learn and to teachers that the board fully supports their professional efforts to teach.
Baxter previously noted the success of cameras on school buses. But the bus issue is different than the classroom and addresses student safety in a situation where only one adult, the bus driver, is available to maintain control and security while also minding traffic.
We believe the board is wise to trust in the professionalism of teachers to handle classroom issues. What the board can, and should, do is ensure the timely removal of students with discipline problems from classrooms, allowing teachers to do what they are trained and paid to do, teach our children.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 25797
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 11, 2010 - 8:30 pm: |
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Students, Meet Your New Teacher, Mr. Robot
By BENEDICT CAREY and JOHN MARKOFF / NEW YORK TIMES with over 75 comments
July 10, 2010
LOS ANGELES — The boy, a dark-haired 6-year-old, is playing with a new companion.
The two hit it off quickly — unusual for the 6-year-old, who has autism — and the boy is imitating his playmate’s every move, now nodding his head, now raising his arms.
“Like Simon Says,” says the autistic boy’s mother, seated next to him on the floor.
Yet soon he begins to withdraw; in a video of the session, he covers his ears and slumps against the wall.
But the companion, a three-foot-tall robot being tested at the University of Southern California, maintains eye contact and performs another move, raising one arm up high.
Up goes the boy’s arm — and now he is smiling at the machine.
In a handful of laboratories around the world, computer scientists are developing robots like this one: highly programmed machines that can engage people and teach them simple skills, including household tasks, vocabulary or, as in the case of the boy, playing, elementary imitation and taking turns.
So far, the teaching has been very basic, delivered mostly in experimental settings, and the robots are still works in progress, a hackers’ gallery of moving parts that, like mechanical savants, each do some things well at the expense of others.
Yet the most advanced models are fully autonomous, guided by artificial intelligence software like motion tracking and speech recognition, which can make them just engaging enough to rival humans at some teaching tasks.
Researchers say the pace of innovation is such that these machines should begin to learn as they teach, becoming the sort of infinitely patient, highly informed instructors that would be effective in subjects like foreign language or in repetitive therapies used to treat developmental problems like autism.
Several countries have been testing teaching machines in classrooms. South Korea, known for its enthusiasm for technology, is “hiring” hundreds of robots as teacher aides and classroom playmates and is experimenting with robots that would teach English.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 25768
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 07, 2010 - 12:50 am: |
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Online courses replace area summer schools
By Barbara O'Brien / Buffalo News Staff Reporter
July 04, 2010
If slashed budgets are what it takes to force NY schools into using more technology to do the jobs of teachers, then I say, "Keep slashing." NY lags every other state in creating virtual schools. It's all about the teachers.
Cleveland Hill students studying online this summer might want to look up the proverb “Necessity is the mother of invention,” then take a look around their classroom.
After its partner district in summer school didn’t have money for the program this year, Cleve Hill decided to go it alone by offering an independent computer learning program.
“I’m excited to see if the kids like doing this better than the traditional summer school,” said Mary C. Pauly, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Cleve Hill.
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And at Lockport and Tonawanda city schools, seniors who need a course to finish graduation requirements can take a summer computer program, after their long-standing summer school programs were canceled.
“In a time of fiscal crisis, we didn’t feel the community could continue to offer summer school and pay for it,” said Lockport Superintendent Terry Carbone.
Some of the computer programs are small and offered to a limited number of students, such as seniors who need to pass a course to graduate.
Others who still want summer school must go for courses at another district, where fees can range from $175 to $260 per course. Many programs start Tuesday or Wednesday, while others begin the following week.
Why do non-seniors have to pay more and sit in classrooms? Why?
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 25761
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 05, 2010 - 11:37 pm: |
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Is technology changing our brains?
By Daniel Willingham / Washington Post The Answer Sheet blog
July 5, 2010
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New technologies seem to touch every part of our lives: How we socialize, how we do business, how we elect people to our government and so on.
Is it equally obvious that these new technologies affect the way we think? Are the very brains of our students being changed by new technologies? And if so, should teachers contemplate new methods of instruction to teach these changed brains?
For me, I have absolutely no doubt that brains are "wired" differently now than they were 50 years ago, and 50 years before that and 200 years before that. In addition to wiring, other structural changes are likely. After all, evolution guarantees that brain development has to be affected by environmental changes. A big reason why 19th century instruction isn't producing the kind of results we expect is because the brains needed to optimize this kind of learning are largely extinct in the U.S. That's why we have to re-engineer education systems based on the way students learn from today's environments. That's what schools for designed for The 21st Century Student do.
There are two rather obvious caveats that ought to be spelled out before we consider an answer. First, the phrase “new technologies” is empty, because everything depends on what students do with new technologies.
Are they reading Shakespeare, playing pong, following a thread on Twitter debating the merits of teacher merit pay, browsing pornography, or executing a meticulously planned raid of a dungeon with 30 others in World of Warcraft?
As the question is usually posed, it is assumed that kids use technology to consume and generate content of no intellectual consequence and that the use of these media is characterized by rapid shifts of attention and multitasking, and consequently, with little sustained attention to much of anything.
The second caveat is that there aren’t good data on this question. Everyone (including me) is speculating.
That said, here are three ways of thinking about ways student’s brains might change and my guess as to their likelihood.
The first is that students come to a teacher’s class with different cognitive equipment than students of a generation ago. It was this possibility that the eminent cognitive scientist Steven Pinker dismissed in a New York times op-ed. (Nick Carr, of “Is Google making us stupid?” fame responded.)
I think Pinker is right. The cognitive system is flexible and adaptive, sure, but it’s not that adaptive. Indeed, it’s the very flexibility that allows different experiences to be accommodated within the same system.
The second way to think about the question “Is technology changing our brains?” is to argue that experience doesn’t change the basic cognitive architecture, but it knocks it around a bit.
This possibility seems much more plausible to me. It’s basically saying, “If you do something a lot, you’ll be biased to do it again, and you’ll find doing it again a bit easier.”
People who argue that technology changes the way we think point out that action video games make players response times faster.
How would students look different in the classroom?
If students really do more skimming and less reflecting than they used to, they might be a bit better at skimming, a bit worse at reflective thought, and likely more biased (absent other instructions) to read at the surface of a text rather than to reflect on it.
If this were true it’s not clear to me that it would call for a profound change in teaching.
Daniel is way oversimplifying this which is why he's thinking only tiny adjustments are required. Think about what the brain must do differently in hunter-gatherer cultures, agrarian cultures, Industrial Age cultures and bio-technical cultures. There are huge differences here and I'm positive that the dominate structure and wiring of brains is different in each. While some things about brains evolve very slowly, other things change within a generation based on environment.
Teachers know in what mental process they want students to engage; often it’s reflection, sometimes it’s skimming, and so forth. So maybe students will start off somewhat less skilled in one type of thought than comparable students from a generation ago. That sounds like it requires a tweak, not a major rethinking of classroom practice.
A final possibility is that the answer to “Is technology changing our brains?” is a simple “no.” Or at least, not in any substantial way.
But new technologies might offer the opportunity for expression to things that kids' brains have always wanted to do.
In other words, technologies don’t make us more distractable. We’ve always been distractable, but now we have many more distractions available. And the distractions are more costly. Twenty years ago, a kid would daydream for a moment, and then return to his math homework. Today, he watches YouTube videos and doesn’t get back to his homework for 15 minutes.
And, of course, the core feature of some new technologies—connectivity—often means interruption. What you’re working on may be important, but it’s hard to resist checking your email when it pings.
This third possibility—that technology offers a new set of opportunity costs—strikes me as highly likely, but happily, it is the most straightforward to address. It requires education in the effective use of new technologies, which ought to happen in school and at home.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 25674
Registered: 01-2000
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 21, 2010 - 8:16 pm: |
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It's Not a Stuffed Animal, It's a $6,000 Medical Device
Paro the Robo-Seal Aims to Comfort Elderly, but Is It Ethical?
By ANNE TERGESEN And MIHO INADA / WALL STREET JOURNAL
JUNE 21, 2010
This is a great article to contemplate our future, and the jobs and skills that will be needed there--and some that won't. What does this say about how public education should change? Also, this is a perfect article for making the point that science can do many things, but it can never tell you what should be done.
Nursing-home workers and academics are trying to figure out whether the robotic seal represents a disturbing turn in treatment of the elderly.
It might be the cuddliest medical device ever to cause an ethical quandary.
Five years ago, a Japanese robot manufacturer introduced Paro to the world. Built to resemble a baby harp seal—with a plush coat of antibacterial fur—Paro was hailed in Japan as a pioneer among socially interactive robots, one that would help lift the spirits of millions of elderly adults.
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Powering it are two 32-bit processors, three microphones, 12 tactile sensors covering most of its fur, touch-sensitive whiskers and a system of motors that silently move its parts. They allow Paro to recognize voices, track motion and "remember" behaviors that elicit positive responses from patients, says Mr. Shibata.
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Sherry Turkle, a professor in the Science, Technology and Society program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, acknowledges Paro's potential as a communication aid, but warns against regarding it as a companion. "Why are we so willing to provide our parents, then ourselves, with faux relationships?" she asks.
Danish filmmaker Phie Ambo, who spotlighted Paro in her 2007 documentary on interactive robots, "Mechanical Love," dismisses such concerns. "When I came into nursing homes and found people sitting in rocking chairs with dolls, no one lifted an eyebrow."
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"I love animals," explains Ms. Simmeth. She whispered to the robot in her lap: "I know you're not real, but somehow, I don't know, I love you."
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 25648
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - 9:46 pm: |
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Employers Increasingly Expect Some Education After High School
By JACQUES STEINBERG / New York Times The Choice blog
June 15, 2010
The number of jobs requiring at least a two-year associate’s degree will outpace the number of people qualified to fill those positions by at least three million in 2018, according to a report being released Tuesday by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
More evidence that a high school education is worth less and less even though we're paying more and more for it. Students don't need more schooling, they need schooling that does the job.
The report makes clear that some education after high school is an increasing prerequisite for entry into the middle class. In 1970, for example, nearly three-quarters of those workers considered to be middle class had not gone beyond high school in their education; in 2007, that figure had dropped below 40 percent, according to the report.
“High school graduates and dropouts will find themselves largely left behind in the coming decade as employer demand for workers with postsecondary degrees continues to surge,’’ write the authors of the report, led by Anthony P. Carnevale.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 25634
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 14, 2010 - 9:37 pm: |
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Studying Engineering Before They Can Spell It
By WINNIE HU / NEW YORK TIMES
June 13, 2010
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All 300 students at Clara E. Coleman Elementary School are learning the A B C’s of engineering this year, even those who cannot yet spell e-n-g-i-n-e-e-r-i-n-g. The high-performing Glen Rock school district, about 22 miles northwest of Manhattan, now teaches 10 to 15 hours of engineering each year to every student in kindergarten through fifth grade, as part of a $100,000 redesign of the science curriculum.
Spurred by growing concerns that American students lack the skills to compete in a global economy, school districts nationwide are packing engineering lessons into already crowded schedules for even the youngest students, giving priority to a subject that was once left to after-school robotics clubs and summer camps, or else waited until college.
Supporters say that engineering reinforces math and science skills, promotes critical thinking and creativity, and teaches students not to be afraid of taking intellectual risks.
Starting young is exactly what it takes, but do you see what's wrong? One size fits all. In schools designed for The 21st Century Student, some students can be exploring engineering topics, while others explore human relationship topics and still others work on a number of other topics--ethics and biotechnical science, for example.
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