A new report by LFA and Grunwald Associates, with support from AT&T, examines how parents perceive the value of mobile devices, how they see their children using mobiles, and what they think of the possibilities for mobile learning.
Technology and Learning
Blog Entries
If you're willing to read subtitles, this may be worth two and a half minutes of your time:
...
A new book review on Salon.com asks: “Why Can’t We Concentrate?” The author’s answers won’t surprise you: the internet, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, ipods and many other electronic distractions are eroding our attention spans, she writes. One could add another culprit: Standardized tests that prize short answers over extended essays or projects.
I don’t mean to knock standardized assessment, which is important for a host of reasons. But the kind of assessment on the cheap that favors easily scored multiple-choice questions over open response items hardly encourages sustained reflection. In the meantime, extended research papers and senior projects have gone the way of vinyl records--assuming they were ever that prevalent.
It won’t be easy, but we have to invest much more aggressively in far better assessments, including assessments of students’ ability to do substantive projects that require sustained attention. ...
Editor's Note: Yesterday, Hollywood producer turned Montana educator Peter Rosten sent us the following remarks about his school's innovative filmmaking program:
Greetings from Montana!
A friend of mine, Jan Lombardi, is the education policy advisor for Montana’s Governor, Brian Schweitzer. Recently Jan forwarded me a “Learning First” newsletter and pointed to an article titled “Learning in the Community: Teen Filmmakers Talk About Their Work and Its Impact on Their Lives”.
After reading this inspiring story, I reached out to Claus von Zastrow. Perhaps he’d be interested in a pretty cool media program here in the Bitterroot Valley in 
rural Western, Montana.
In 2004, we created MAPS: Media Arts in the Public Schools. (Be sure to visit our website and Youtube page.) The initial goal was to educate under-served, rural students in the media arts--and since ‘movies’ are cool, there was a healthy and eager response. ...
Last week, teen filmmaker Jasmine Britton told us about the impact of her filmmaking on her life plans and academic prospects. Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, a Brooklyn-based non-profit organization, has reinforced Britton's academic skills and strengthened her motivation to go to college.
This week, we're sharing our recent conversation with Reelworks filmmaker Isaac Schrem, who expands on themes introduced by Britton. Shrem describes how his school's arts programs, together with filmmaking opportunities through Reel Works, shaped his professional aspirations.
Listen to approximately 5 minutes of highlights from our interview (or read through the transcript below):
Interview Highlights
PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS: Tell me about the film you made, The Other Side of the Picture.
ISAAC: I was always interested in filmmaking, but I didn't know exactly what I wanted to with it. I went with the phrase, "Write what you know." The one thing that I knew or wanted to understand, at least, at the time, was the situation with my parents, and my father leaving us and going away to Paris. So I went with that story.
It was a very rough topic for me to tackle because I still ...
He’s baaaack…. And he continues to repudiate the American ideal of equal opportunity.
In his 1994 book The Bell Curve, Charles Murray infamously attributed achievement gaps to inherent genetic differences among racial groups. His most recent book, Real Education, extended the argument, calling for education policies that build on ostensible differences in students’ capacity. He believes we should put low-performing students out of their academic misery by shunting them off into less demanding vocational courses. He is content to see demography as destiny, counseling us to abandon our “romantic” notion that we can narrow or close achievement gaps.
In a dyspeptic op-ed for Sunday’s Washington Post, Murray extends his argument again by railing against European-style social programs that seek to level social and economic playing fields.
The Washington Post op-ed argues, in effect, that European social programs drain life of its purpose by coddling people. To illustrate his point, Murray recalls reactions to a speech he delivered in Zurich: “Afterward, a few of the 20-something members of the audience came up and said plainly that the phrase ‘a life well-lived’ did not have meaning for them.” Now there’s a representative sample: a few Swiss 20-somethings who (1.) attended a Charles Murray speech and (2.) actually wanted to speak with him afterwards. Murray claims that these aimless souls ...
In less than 5 short years, "Teachers TV" has grown from an idea harbored by a British Schools Minister into a popular and influential British television channel devoted solely to education. Now, there are efforts afoot to help something similar take root in American soil.
We recently spoke with Andrew Bethell, Teachers TV's CEO and creative director. Bethell described the accomplishments of the television channel, which has broadcast thousands of often riveting mini-documentaries about what's happening in British schools.
The documentaries offer authentic accounts of successful practice and real-life struggles to improve. They also feature broad education reform strategies--without ever losing sight of those strategies' impact on actual schools and students. As Bethell is careful to point out, Teachers TV focuses on more than just teachers: It highlights the work of ...
Last week's Sunday New York Times published an interesting article on the benefits and perils of online reading. Taking on a topic often framed as a debate between dour supporters of books and wild-eyed proponents of technology, the Times leaves the impression that the book advocates and internet enthusiasts are both mostly right.
Truly proficient on-line readers are creative, critical, and self-directed brokers of information from many different sources, so schools that do not include forms of on-line reading in their curricula miss an important opportunity to prepare students for the 21st century. To quote the Times, "Reading five Web sites, an op-ed article and a blog post or two, experts say, can be more enriching than reading one book." True, but the value of such reading depends on the websites--and the book. It also depends on the reader's ability to ask the right questions, separate wheat from chaff, analyze information and construct arguments. Young, 21st-century readers still need some old-fashioned guidance. ...
On Wednesday and Thursday, teacher/bloggers extraordinaire Nancy Flanagan and Bill Ferriter debated the benefits of technology in the classroom, and a host of other top-flight educators added their insights in
the comments section. Their postings were so thoughtful and engaging that I just had to add my two cents.
I had to think about the debate and resulting comments as my wife and I watched the new Pixar film Wall-e yesterday. The film presents a technological dystopia. Humans have escaped to outer space after filling the planet with so much consumerist junk that it can no longer sustain life. The film reminds me of Beckett's play Endgame, whose characters inhabit trash cans, overwhelmed by the refuse of an increasingly degenerate culture. ...
Yesterday, we posted the beginnings of a civil--though keen--debate on the value of technology in the classroom between Bill Ferriter and Nancy Flanagan, two distinguished teachers and bloggers in the Center for Teaching Quality's Teacher Leaders Network. Today, Nancy and Bill rebut each others' statements and sharpen their own positions.
Where do you stand on technology and teaching? Weigh in by posting a comment, below.
***
Nancy's Reply: Tools don't have a conscience
Speaking of cultural realities, Bill says "digital tools are playing an increasingly important role in the work of successful individuals primarily because they make evaluating, inventing, creating and collaborating more efficient. Without a fluency in using technology to facilitate productive endeavors, students truly are unprepared for the future." ...
Our friends at the Teacher Leaders Network, which connects accomplished teacher leaders from across the country, hooked us up with two of their dazzling teacher/bloggers: Nancy Flanagan and Bill Ferriter, two award-winning teachers who have built national reputations as both thought leaders and practitioners.
What resulted was a pointed but always respectful debate on the promise and perils of teaching with technology. In guest postings today and tomorrow, Nancy and Bill will sketch out the contours of this debate.
Nancy Flanagan: Brave New Curriculum - or More of the Same? ...
SIGN UP
Sign up for our e-newsletter on public school success.
A VISION FOR GREAT SCHOOLS
On this website, educators, parents and policymakers from coast to coast are sharing what's already working in public schools--and sparking a national conversation about how to make it work for children in every school. Join the conversation!
