A Solution for Homework

Just what is the purpose of homework and what value does it have in our children's schooling?

The typical answer is that it teaches responsibility and initiative. Another answer is that homework provides important practice for children on new concepts outside of the classroom.

These are the assumptions teaching and parents have been applying to homework for generations. However, we don't have any data that backs up these assumptions so they just stay assumptions and not fact.

Some teachers (http://bluebirdsclassroom.blogspot.com/2008/03/weird-homework-thing-we-do.html) are starting to adjust the way they do homework. There are basically three types of homework students. Those that will also do the homework and most likely do it correctly. Those who will do the homework but sometimes struggle with some of the questions and then finally those who won't be the homework at all. There are plenty of reasons they won't do it....they don't see it important, they don't have someone at home to encourage them, and a multitude of other reasons.

The teachers at the above site have changed their homework in an interesting way. They put 4 homework signs out at the beginning of the week. A student needs to turn in two of the assignments by the end of the week. Not only that they make the homework answers available for students so that students may check their answers as they work. However, they don't make the answers readily available...rather than only have them in the classroom and they only make 10 copies. They have seen their homework rates way up from where they were earlier.

I wondering if all schools should take a look at their homework policies. Perhaps something as posting some homework answers might make it possible for more students to complete their homework. Perhaps we even need to look at the amount and quality of the homework that we assign. If homework is truly practice doesn't the teacher have the obligation to review each student's homework assignments so they can determine whether or not the student has indeed learned the new concept. However, I don't think this happens very often. There simply isn't enough time in the day for a teacher to review each homework assignment with their class.

It has been a long time since we have evaluated our homework policies....but I think we need to do so. For anyone serving on that committee I would certainly recommend they research some of the changes other schools across the country have made with regards to homework.

A good start would be Alfie Kohn's book the Homework Myth.

Social Bookmarking Homework

Social Bookmarking has some huge potential to establish shared online resources among staff. This could be a great help in terms of sharing valuable resources and instructional interventions that are working.

Please register for an account on Delicious. Add the toolbar to your browser and start booking. Start by bookmarking several of your favorite educational resources. Once you have done that look at your list of bookmarks and explore who else also bookmarked them….this exploration can lead to excellent discoveries of new sites.

For your assignment please post your delicious bookmark page. Here is how mine looks: http://del.icio.us/mlr2007

This link will help you install the IE extension...buttons to make delicious much more user friendly.
http://del.icio.us/help/ie/extension

Podcasting

Now that you have learned about Podcasting and podcasts, please use one or several of the podcast search engines to find a podcast that you might be interested in listening to. It can be professional or personal.

Download and listen to the podcast. (I have headphones) Listen to the podcast and post information about the podcast you listened to. What podcast was it? What was your impression of it?

Do you see podcasting as a tool for learning in your classroom with either teacher or student created podcasts?

http://www.podscope.com/
http://www.thepodcastnetwork.com/
http://www.podcast.net/
iTunes
http://www.podcastalley.com/

Educational podcasts or videocasts to consider:

Sir Kenneth Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66

Dr. Scott McLeod's various podcasts
http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/podcasting/index.html
http://scottmcleod.typepad.com/castleconversations/datadriven/index.html (specifics about data driven instruction)

What Educator's Need to Know about Web 2.0
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/06/21/podcast163-what-educators-need-to-know-about-web-20/

Thomas Freidman presentation
http://www.podworkx.com/TheSydneyInstitute/2007/05/03/ThomasLFriedmanSydneyInstituteAnnualLectureTheWorldIsStillFlat.aspx

Apple Educational Conference Presentations
http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/search.php?collectionID=1087

Wikis

Now that you have seen wikis in action….how do you think you could use wikis in class. Obviously you could use other people’s wikis for information. How could you give make use of student created wikis in your classroom. Be specific with regards to courses, content, projects, etc. This link will give you some ideas.

Bloglines: An RSS aggregator

RSS feeds are wonderful...some say it is the best professional tool a teacher or any professional could have access to. Remember....rather than going to websites, you subscribe to websites that have feeds (most active sites do) and then just go to your reader/aggregator to keep up to date.

Please go to Bloglines and create a new account. I would like you to also subscribe to at least 3 different blogs/sites that you would like to read. Once you have completed this please post in comments your account name as well as the names of the 3 sites/blogs you subscribed to.

Here are two tutorials to help you get started (Using Bloglines, Bloglines at Tech Help)
The RSS Guide for Educators handout will also help.

In order to tell me your account name your account needs to be public.
Here is a link on how to make your account public and how to get the web address.

A Day in the Life of Web 2.0

As we are learning more about Web 2.0 and its possible uses for education I think it would be a good idea to really push our imagination about what the future (not too distant?) might be like.

Read David Warlick's post on Web 2.0 and post a comment with regards to your impression of the article if you see anything like this ever happening. What about happening in your classroom?

Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives

Marc Prensky is a game designer. He has written several books on gaming and today's learners. Several years ago, in an attempt to help teachers understand that today's students are quite different from when we were school aged children. Today's children are quite different than even those students we had 10 years ago. How can this be?

Prensky tries to explain it all in these thought provoking articles:

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (pt 1)

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Do They Really Think Differently? (pt 2)

Please post your thoughts after reading these articles. Are today's kids really different?