Friday, July 9, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Ready for the Challenges of the Future! (Really?)
Making my way through the blogs and #edtech Tweets this morning and came upon this article published in the Virginian Pilot of Virginia Beach, VA.
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/07/va-beach-booting-chalkboards-techboards
Turns out the local school board had funds that they were going to use to pay teachers a bonus of $450. Not sure were the funding came from in these tough economic times but it is admirable of them to do so if they can afford it.
But the teacher bonus didn't get by the board. Instead the board decided to "invest" the money into IWB...interactive whiteboards. The district set aside $7.7 million for the technology. Granted the district has roughly 7700 students but $7.7 million is a lot of money.
So why did they do this? Board members said:
People don't get it. It is not about the tool with which the material is taught. It is about the learning! To think the $7.7 million will lead to 21st century skills for their students is a bit of a stretch. I feel they've been sold a bill of goods. They did what many schools have done....they had money to spend and jumped on the latest trend.
If you do go to this article and you never know how long newspaper links stay please make sure you go down to the comments. The community feedback is not good.
See how much more exciting math can be?
Va. Beach booting chalkboards for tech-board
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/07/va-beach-booting-chalkboards-techboards
Turns out the local school board had funds that they were going to use to pay teachers a bonus of $450. Not sure were the funding came from in these tough economic times but it is admirable of them to do so if they can afford it.
But the teacher bonus didn't get by the board. Instead the board decided to "invest" the money into IWB...interactive whiteboards. The district set aside $7.7 million for the technology. Granted the district has roughly 7700 students but $7.7 million is a lot of money.
So why did they do this? Board members said:
Board members said it was a way to ensure students are ready for the challenges of the future.Really, the future? I am not sure how an interactive whiteboard preps a student for the future. Nowhere in the various 21st century initiative language do I see anything about whiteboards and how students will need to be able to learn from them in the future.
People don't get it. It is not about the tool with which the material is taught. It is about the learning! To think the $7.7 million will lead to 21st century skills for their students is a bit of a stretch. I feel they've been sold a bill of goods. They did what many schools have done....they had money to spend and jumped on the latest trend.
If you do go to this article and you never know how long newspaper links stay please make sure you go down to the comments. The community feedback is not good.
See how much more exciting math can be?
Texts and Tweets
Conventional wisdom is a wonderful thing and I love the little section on conventional wisdom that Newsweek magazine used to do. Don't get me started on the Newsweek layout change. Conventional wisdom is great...it helps us make sense...only problem is that it is sometimes wrong.
As a teacher I used to cringe (okay still do) when a student misspells a word, especially when it is a word I feel they should know.
So you can imagine how I felt about kids using text speak as a shorthand for written communication. It just seems a bit lazy to me and some of the kids using this new form of communication are still learning the basic rules of spelling.
However last week I read an article (long gone by now :( ) that alluded to text or txt spelling as actually requiring some sophisticated spelling skill. Researchers/linguists who study questions such as "does texting hurt traditional spelling" have been making some interesting findings.
Some are saying it doesn't hurt spelling and it even may help traditional spelling. Like it or not, our language continues to grow and morph and this is one change we need to except. However, we need to remind kids there is a time and place for informal and formal written or "texted" communication.
Below, linguistic expert David Crystal gives his take on this change in language.
As a teacher I used to cringe (okay still do) when a student misspells a word, especially when it is a word I feel they should know.
So you can imagine how I felt about kids using text speak as a shorthand for written communication. It just seems a bit lazy to me and some of the kids using this new form of communication are still learning the basic rules of spelling.
However last week I read an article (long gone by now :( ) that alluded to text or txt spelling as actually requiring some sophisticated spelling skill. Researchers/linguists who study questions such as "does texting hurt traditional spelling" have been making some interesting findings.
Some are saying it doesn't hurt spelling and it even may help traditional spelling. Like it or not, our language continues to grow and morph and this is one change we need to except. However, we need to remind kids there is a time and place for informal and formal written or "texted" communication.
Below, linguistic expert David Crystal gives his take on this change in language.
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