Put Out the Fire–But Fix the Fire Code The first thing we need to acknowledge about the “Keep Our Educators Working Act” is that it will not keep all our educators working. With many states facing huge budget gaps for years to come, emergency federal funding amounts to a finger in the dike. Some school districts are so strapped for cash that they may be forced to lay off teachers this year with or without federal aid

See the rest here:
Ariela Rozman responded to The Education Jobs Bill And Reform on May 10, 2010 03:31 PM

An historian’s nitpick This is a bit tangential, but Andy Rotherham repeats a common myth when he writes, “schools happen to be one of our least equitable institutions and most of the real progress we’ve made in the past half century (for minority students, poor students, special needs students, etc…) has occurred because of federal pressure.” There are substantial inequalities in both spending in states such as Illinois and in terms of educational attainment and achievement, but the first half of Andy’s statement is overblown.

Read this article:
Sherman Dorn responded to The Education Jobs Bill And Reform on May 10, 2010 02:25 PM

Over the last week, the oil slick that continues to bubble from a broken British Petroleum oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico has become a media star.

Visit link:
3 Ways the Gulf Oil Spill Will Affect You

by Thanos Hatziapostolou and Iraklis Paraskakis, Electronic Journal of E-Learning Formative feedback is instrumental in the learning experience of a student. It can be effective in promoting learning if it is timely, personal, manageable, motivational, and in direct relation with assessment criteria. Despite its importance, however, research suggests that students are discouraged from engaging in the feedback process primarily for reasons that relate to lack of motivation and difficulty in relating to and reflecting on the feedback comments.

Excerpt from:
Enhancing the Impact of Formative Feedback on Student Learning through an Online Feedback System

by Duncan Folley, Electronic Journal of E-Learning This research paper investigates if the traditional lecture is no longer appropriate for Neomillennial Learning Styles and whether an alternative blended approach could/should be used? Over the past decade the lecture as we know it, has gradually been under attack from constructivists, Twigg (1999) for example argues that the lecture is in the main a one-way process with little or no active participation and does not allow the student an opportunity to learn in a collaborative form. Exley & Dennick (2004) quote an unknown source as saying, “Lecturing is the transference of the notes of the lecturer to the notes of the student without passing through the brains of either” (2004:3).

More here:
Online Learning; The Lecture is Dead Long Live the e-Lecture

by Max Calloway, Daily Collegian Several UMass professors and graduate students have been turning to the massive online community of “Second Life” in an attempt to revolutionize the way education is delivered online, and they are not alone.

More:
UMass’ Second Life: Do virtual worlds hold the future of online learning?

by Aaron Solomon, SWMV All-girls private school Harpeth Hall in Nashville has teamed up with some of the other top all-girls schools in the country to offer their unique online learning opportunities to more girls around the world. “We wanted to give that opportunity to any girl; it doesn’t matter if you don’t go to an all-girls school,” Rumsey said. “We’re also looking for students who are maybe homeschooled or a non-traditional student.” The Online School for Girls is completing its first year with only students from the four founding schools who taught the online courses.

Follow this link:
Top All-Girls Schools Offer Online Learning Classes

With a month left before the application deadline for the second round of the $3.4 billion Race to the Top grant competition, state leaders are torn between trying to implement bold reform ideas and obtaining support from teachers unions. The winners of the first round of the competition, Delaware and Tennessee, achieved, respectively, 100 percent and 93 percent of union support

Here is the original post:
Education Reform: Stakeholder Support vs. Bold Ideas

A Compromising Position Is it better to strive for bold reforms or greater buy-in? This classic question is relevant to RTTT and virtually all political change in our country

Follow this link:
Steve Peha responded to Education Reform: Stakeholder Support vs. Bold Ideas on May 3, 2010 06:02 PM

Bold Reform + Union Buy-In Are Possible The question presents a false dichotomy. You can have bold reform and union buy-in when you put kids first in the equation.

Read the original here:
Dennis Van Roekel responded to Education Reform: Stakeholder Support vs. Bold Ideas on May 3, 2010 03:17 PM

An Offer Teachers Can and Should Refuse Normal.dotm 0 0 1 487 2778 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 23 5 3411 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Today’s question implies that obtaining union buy-in for Race to the Top (RTTT) would mean losing something valuable, i.e., “bold reform ideas.” That’s a false dichotomy, created by politicians searching for an educational “magic…

Read more:
Lisa Guisbond responded to Education Reform: Stakeholder Support vs. Bold Ideas on May 3, 2010 03:05 PM

Good News, Bad News & the Nuclear Option It speaks volumes that Secretary Duncan has responded to this question. His insistence that states choose reform over buy-in is valuable

Go here to see the original:
Andy Smarick responded to Education Reform: Stakeholder Support vs. Bold Ideas on May 3, 2010 01:46 PM

All’s Well That Ends Well I appreciate Secretary Duncan’s comment and believe that, if he and the Department follow the more specific guidance given here by Jon Schnur and Margaret Spellings, Race to the Top could end up making a positive contribution to further reform of our system.

See original here:
Sandy Kress responded to Education Reform: Stakeholder Support vs. Bold Ideas on May 3, 2010 10:14 AM

RttT Should Demand Big Reforms Broad support is helpful for widespread implementation, but RttT is a package of big ideas meant to be implemented in a handful of places to show the way forward.

Originally posted here:
Tom Vander Ark responded to Education Reform: Stakeholder Support vs. Bold Ideas on May 3, 2010 09:29 AM

RTTT: Just say NO Race to the Top is chock full of bad ideas for improving education. The states should just say no.

Originally posted here:
Diane Ravitch responded to Education Reform: Stakeholder Support vs. Bold Ideas on May 3, 2010 09:10 AM

by Best Colleges Online We’ve all heard the jokes about “underwater basket weaving,” but the truth of the matter is that there really are some crazy courses out there for people looking to get their degree online. Some of them are a little outrageous in terms of topic, but others seem to take online learning to the limit. http://www.bestcollegesonline.net/blog/2010/20-most-obscure-online-college-courses/ Share on Facebook

See the article here:
Online Learning: 20 Most Obscure Online College Courses

By Joe Bailey, the Collegian The Digital Campus (DC) at Fresno State is designed to enrich courses by offering an online aspect to every course that uses Blackboard or other online resources, officials said. Former DC director Lynda Harding says that Fresno State is ahead of the national curve in regards to online learning according to the 2008 Sloan-APLU national survey about Online Learning

Follow this link:
Online Learning instructors see digital divide

Change Teachers, Then Training When this week’s question was posted, I was attending the wedding of a friend who is becoming a doctor.

Follow this link:
Steve Peha responded to Should Teachers Train The Same Way Doctors Do? on April 29, 2010 02:39 PM

Residency programs make sense The highly relevant Boston Teacher Residency program reflects a movement that, as Steve Peha noted, must be replicated and encouraged.

Read more:
Chad Wick responded to Should Teachers Train The Same Way Doctors Do? on April 27, 2010 10:37 AM

You can tell a lot about someone's priorities by where they spend their money. Pet lovers spend disproportionately large amounts on chew toys and animal sized sweaters

See original here:
Is education important to gov’t?