Dangerously Irrelevant

Five online resources worth checking out…

1. Tom Hoffman deconstructs the English / Language Arts standards from the Common Curriculum.
2. Sylvia Martinez reminds us that an important online safety report discourages scare tactics.
3. 10 things teachers should unlearn, from What Ed Said
4. 19 things teacher librarians should unlearn, from Joyce Valenza
5. Mashable gives us an infographic on the geosocial universe.

See also previous posts in this category!

Five online resources worth checking out…

1. In an excellent post about the leadership we need today, Will Richardson notes that “if you’re waiting for the conversation in the coffee shop and the porch swing to act, you’re going to be waiting a long time”
2. Every educator should read Ira Socol’s post on ‘commons knowledge’
3. I loved this post about the differences between being creative in the analog world versus the digital world
4. Inside Higher Ed highlights a disturbing ruling on education researcher’s ability to protect the confidentiality of schools participating in a study
5. The keynote speakers have been announced for the free K12 Online Conference 2010

See also previous posts in this category!

Five online resources worth checking out…

1. TIME has an excellent overview article on Twitter and how it just may change the way we live.
2. The Des Moines Register profiled an interesting charter school in Sigourney, Iowa. I’m very lucky to have the innovative superintendent as one of my doctoral students!
3. Do you know the 10 Golden Rules of Social Media?
4. Philip Greenspun has some thoughts about how the Web and the weblog have changed writing.
5. Tom Vander Ark says that “public education is [General Motors] in the 1980s -- it's dying and doesn't know it.”

See also previous posts in this category!

1. Larry Ferlazzo has a fantastic post about the videos at TED Talks and a variety of supporting resources for teachers, presenters, etc. This is a must read!
2. In South Africa (and elsewhere!), “if the principal sets the lead, technology can succeed in a school.”
3. Universities mull the use of blogs instead of course management systems. I’ve been using blogs instead of Blackboard for my courses for a couple of years now. The CMS paradigm is about institutionalized hand-holding and centralized, walled-garden control. No thanks. (hat tip to @jtwetten)
4. The University of Michigan Health Sciences Library has a fascinating slideshow on the different ways that the Obama campaign used social media to get its messages out and mobilize people to action.
5. Siri, virtual assistant software for the iPhone and other smartphones, looks like an extremely useful product (particularly with the voice recognition feature). 

See also previous posts in this category!

Five online resources worth checking out…

1. Alec Couros has asked his readers to recommend readings that will expand his Associate Dean’s “understanding of current changes regarding social networks, knowledge, and technology in education.” Head on over and add your two cents.
2. Today is #tweetbump day on Twitter.
3. Jing Pro is only $15 a year. Perhaps the best bargain on the Web for easily making short videos!
4. So what IS going on [in Montgomery County, Maryland]? Parents are finding their voices. Awesome!
5. Want to be a guest blogger for NECC 2009? You could win a free press pass to the conference. 

See also previous posts in this category!

Five online resources worth checking out…

1. Shelly Blake-Pock takes on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
2. Mashable highlights the top 7 Twitter tutorials on YouTube.
3. America likes to foist its e-waste issue on developing countries.
4. Kelly Christopherson discusses how there’s always more.
5. Google Web Elements is worthy of investigation.

See also previous posts in this category!

Five online resources worth checking out…

1. “We need to be inspired. We need to be encouraged. We need to spend time doing things we love. We want to change the world. Is that too much to ask?”
2. Iowa schools are focusing on penmanship. Really. Penmanship.
3. Britt Watwood notes that “there was a note of fear that the ‘good old days’ were gone and that because of online learning, higher education was going to hell in a handbasket.” Be sure to also check out his white paper on online teaching.
4. Step 1: Play with this sortable table of beginning and average teacher salaries by state.
5. Step 2: Then get really depressed about teacher salaries by reading the PDF version of this book from the Economic Policy Institute.

See also previous posts in this category!

My latest roundup of links and tools…

America is not competitive

A majority of Fortune 1000 executives surveyed give the American pre-college system a failing grade. As Andrew Trotter reports from Education Week’s new Digital Education blog (check it out!), 95% of the survey participants think that the U.S. is in danger of losing its global position because of students’ disinterest in STEM fields. Be sure to check out the other Bayer Facts of Science Education surveys.

Chris Lehmann rocks out

As others have noted, Chris’ presentation at IgnitePhilly is a must-see. Forward on to others using this URL:

• http://snipurl.com/ignitephilly

This is the kind of passion I strive for on a regular basis. I don’t always get there, but this is my desired goal. 

Hot for teacher

I wonder what the NEA thinks about this SinglesNet ad.

Teach students about dating violence

Rhode Island has made school training about dating violence mandatory. This is a fantastic idea. Did you know that 1 in 5 female high school students report being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner?

Americans who want Americans to be dumb at math

Jo Boaler has an interesting Education Week article on the ‘anti-knowledge movement.’

This just in: Teenagers like to text message

The New York Times reports that cell phone users send more text messages than make phone calls. Teenagers are the most prolific texters, which of course will impact their communication habits when they hit the workforce.

Wireless school buses

I love this creative thinking in Arkansas about using wireless Internet access to turn long school bus rides into learning opportunities.

WeDo joins MindStorms

Andrew Trotter reports on Lego’s upcoming WeDo kits for schools. Calling all junior robotics engineers!

Two great Campus Technology articles

Article 1: 5 common mistakes using blogs with students.
Article 2: Educators and the generative nature of the digital economy.

Hill Street Blues meets K-12

Did you know that over 12,000 K-12 employees in the U.S. had a nonfatal occupational injury in 2006? As Sergeant Esterhaus used to note, Hey, let’s be careful out there!

My netbook is on its way!

Netbooks are hot, hot, hot! (see, e.g., the articles in GigaOM, ZDNet, and PC Magazine). Between netbooks and smartphones, the mobile Web is well on its way to penetrating every nook and cranny of our lives. This has positive implications for getting a computing device into the hands of every student! I thought it was time to dive into this computing sector and will share pictures of my Dell Inspiron Mini 9 when it arrives later this month. Now all we need is ubiquitous wireless broadband…

My latest roundup of links and tools…

When did the IT staff get promoted above the superintendent?

Will Richardson notes:

[A] school superintendent I spoke with … lamented the fact that his IT staff wouldn’t give him access to YouTube and even Wikipedia.

See also my older post: Principal blogging not allowed.

Math and motocross

Check out this sweet series of motocross math videos at HotChalk. The brains behind the math? Former guest blogger Jason Dyer!

“I didn’t know Sasquatch was real.”

Fun with the Pacific Tree Octopus!

Maybe we should do this for teachers and administrators too

"Seventy-one-year-old Peggy McIntyre needs to learn as much as she can about Windows before 8 a.m. Or else."

Post-Gutenberg economics

It’s now a publish-then-filter world. Clay Shirky notes that “we’re clocking a singularity a week at this point.”

We need to educate our educators

Seth Godin says:

It’s easy to be against something you’re afraid of. And it’s easy to be afraid of something that you don’t understand.

Open your brain, open your model of education

The Education Innovation blog has an interesting post on closed v. open models of education. [Note to self: this might be the world’s longest URL]

Some good thinking going on here

Thanks to Mike Sansone, I recently discovered the Union Square Ventures blog. In Power to the People, they state:

[W]e believe that we are only at the beginning of the web’s impact on the fundamental structure of education. We expect much of that change to be away from the existing educational institutions and towards empowering individuals and newly-formed groups.

In Why the Flow of Innovation Has Reversed, they note:

[T]he vector of innovation has changed. It used to be that innovation started with NASA, flowed to the military, then to the enterprise, and finally to the consumer. Today, it is the reverse. All of the most interesting stuff is being built first for consumers and is tricking back to the enterprise. . . . [O]ne reason this is happening is that the success of a web service is more often determined by its social engineering than its electrical engineering.

Students aren’t the only ones missing the big picture

The Florida Department of Education is concerned that students are missing the big picture when it comes to science. A task force stated that “teachers should provide a broader focus on scientific concepts and process in a 'big picture' sense.” Hmmm… I wonder if that means the Department is going to narrow down the list of required science standards and also pare down the size of approved textbooks. I’m guessing not. Download the full report if you dare.

Disempowered today = disempowered tomorrow

I left this comment at Jim Gates’ Tipline blog:

Students who aren't fluid technology users today will be the low-wage workers and disempowered citizens of tomorrow.

I want it right THERE

Finally, if you’re anal-retentive about your Windows taskbar like I am, check out Taskbar Shuffle.

Three great questions

I especially like the last of these three questions from Rodney Trice. We should be asking teachers and principals that question more often (and just that directly).

• How do you intend to bring the global community into your classroom?
• How will you prepare students for a future that is relatively unknown?
• How you will eliminate the racial predictability of achievement outcomes in your classroom?

This just in: Teenagers play video games!

All kidding aside, the latest report from the amazing Pew Internet & American Life Project confirms that kids - even girls! – are up to their eyeballs in video games.

We’ll stick to the tried and (not) true

Nope, sorry. iPods are not allowed. Back to the old way. Too bad it doesn’t work as well. Gotta do it anyway. Oh, and I love how the music players are categorically, by definition, a ‘distraction’ (if not in actuality). Who needs reality when we have these little educational policy fantasy worlds that we can create for ourselves?

Throw da bums out!

After attempts to bring in turnaround experts didn’t work, the state of Maryland is increasingly leaning toward completely restructuring schools that are academically unsuccessful. State schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick says:

We are very comfortable being more aggressive about this. We have seen much better results [when the staff is replaced].

Blog like a farmer

I ran across an old post by Mike Sansone, one of my Iowa blogging buddies. I really like his metaphor that blogging should be like farming.

Scorecards

I bet parents and community members would really like to see scorecards like this one (maybe with different data) for their local schools. I know some schools and districts already do this. Hopefully they use line graphs rather than tables of numbers. Could you tell the essential story of a school district with 10 key, well-done graphs? I bet you could!

No writing in journalism class?

Check out this excellent article about the NYU journalism student who got in trouble for blogging about her class. [hat tip to Tim Stahmer]

I got no money, honey

Did you catch Edutopia’s advice on how to innovate without extra money or support?

Spend hours on content you can find with Google in 3 seconds!

One of my favorite things about Wes Fryer is his ability to highlight the ridiculous. I also enjoy his irreverance (“Behold! I hold aloft the holy words!”), particularly when I have the same experience at my kids’ school.

Speaking of Google…

Finally, I’m digging Google Chrome. it’s now my default browser and I’m using Firefox less and less (and I love Firefox). Chrome is much faster. I also like that each tab is a separate process; I have yet to have a browser hang…