Tales of a Technology Omnivore

Numbers don’t lie and they’re heralding good news for anyone who believes in technology’s power to increase student achievement. The University of Florida investigated the effects of math computer games on learners’ math achievement and math course motivation and have found that educational video games can improve students’ mathematics understanding and skills and can significantly raise scores on district-wide math benchmark exams.

The focus of the study was on my favorite educational video game, Tabula Digita’s DimensionM, which remains my favorite because it’s fun (yes an educational game really can be fun), directly tied to the curriculum (with detailed standard alignments and implementation strategies), and multiplayer (teamwork, collaboration, role setting, strategizing… 21^st century skills). We’ve been using this game in our district with much success documented by anecdotal reports from teachers, students, and administrators. But as you know, word of mouth recommendations are great but don’t cut the cake when it’s time to prove the effectiveness of your educational strategy especially when you are trying to get funding. (more…)

It comes as no surprise that the contents of text messages can get very personal.  MSNBC has an amusing article about what you might find on the average teen’s SMS/MMS log which includes racy photos and sexually-charged love notes.  Instead of ‘texting’, the kids are calling it ’sexting’.  Very funny. 

So you can imagine if you were a dean at any middle or high school, examining the contents of a cell phone can be very useful.  It’s like looking at the note the children are passing around the room.  Except in NYC schools, cell phones are not permitted.  Most schools will confiscate the phone if it’s seen (in other words you can have it in your bag on silent) and will only release it to the parent. 

A recent federal appeals court ruling intended for business might affect school policies around cell phone investigations.  The June 18th ruling says that employers must have a warrant or the employees permission to view contents of personal cell phones.  This ruling could be a precedent for lawsuits against school officials who search students’ cell phones.  Definitely a problem for the dean. 

While passing through Tweed I had the opportunity to see the student protests protesting the funding reductions that the schools are suffering from. So I quickly grabbed a camera and took a few shots. Of course my gut reaction was why aren’t these kids in school but I was with The Innovative Educator who explained the educational value in participating in an expression of democracy. Very true.

Regarding the reduction in funding, my opinion is the mayor and chancellor made the better choice to spread the funding reductions across the city so that all schools experienced a meager 1.1% reduction instead of a few schools getting hammered. Fact of the matter is we’re entering tough times economically and this mayor has proven his prowess when it comes to managing money. My vote is to trust him on this. I still do appreciate the value in allowing the students to protest.

Rob sent me an interesting article from the New York Sun about how the charter school which is housed in the Department of Education’s own headquarters building (ground floor), is being investigated for test tampering among other things.

First a little about the school — it’s a charter school funded by the multimillionaire philanthropist Courtney Ross and modeled after the school Mrs. Ross runs in the Hamptons. It’s housed on the ground level of the Department of Education’s headquarters building on Chambers street, the Tweed Courthouse. The students wear uniforms to this prestigious school whose mission is to bring high quality teaching and learning to the students of NYC.

So according to the story, the principal (the FIFTH since the school was founded two years ago) asked one of her teachers to make up an answer key to the math state test and took two sets of them home to answer them for the students. Can you imagine the LEVEL of pressure this principal must have felt being in Tweed that she had to resort to methods such as these? (more…)

I first read about Immune Attack in eSchool news and quickly jumped to the homepage of a game that has done what schools need: release an educational game with the supports needed to make it educational. Immune Attack joins the rank of games like Tabula Digita’s DimensionM as it addresses specific curriculum standards in a high-quality interactive environment that is engaging and educational AND supports teaching and learning with a full complement of resources. For 9th and 10th grade general biology students it can be an enrichment activity but for AP Biology classes it addresses specific curriculum standards and goals in an immersive interactive environment. On their website you’ll find a video of an AP Biology teacher that explains everything you want to know about its use and effectiveness in education. You’ll also find standard alignments and a rich toolset of teaching aids: objectives, essential questions, lesson plans, vocabulary, and extension ideas. (more…)

The alarm has been sounding for years now –> the business model of education has latched on to standardized test scores as the sole performance indicator and they’re wrong. Not only are they wrong, but they’re wreaking havok on quality teaching and learning experiences by forcing schools to teach to the test and creating a hierarchy of what’s important and what’s not: Math and English are important, Social Studies, Science, Foreign Language, Physical Education, Technology, Art, and Music are not. Don’t believe me? Spend time in ANY school across this nation and you’ll quickly get a sense of what matters. In NYC, principal contracts hinge around performance gains in Math and ELA. For teachers, they want to institute incentive bonuses for Math and ELA standardized test performance. Instead of teaching the love of learning and giving students a rich varied deep learning experience, schools spend September to March teaching to the test.  The good news is… (more…)

I was lucky enough to join my colleagues for a visit to the Science Leadership Academy in Center City, Philadelphia — Chris Lehmann’s school! Chris is recognized by many as one of the most innovative educators of our time, I think I saw a plaque that said one of the top 20 in the nation by the national school board. So I was excited to meet him and see what they were doing down in Philly.

So the school runs like clockwork, the children were happy, and the staff seemed into what they were doing still (which is a feat considering we’re winding up the school year). The principal, Chris Lehmann, is a very down to earth “normal guy” with a deep passion for teaching and learning that inspires him to think of new ways to provide a rich learning experience and communicate a love of learning to his whole staff. So let me tell you a few characteristics that stuck out to me as I viewed this school.

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As an advocate of using new communication conduits, I find this article particularly interesting. Before I get into why, let me explain what I mean by communication conduits in relation to school communications. The 20th century provided amazing advances in how schools communicate to parents, students, and teachers with the invention of radio, phone, TV, and the internet. But it’s not done there, and in the last 8 years, we’ve seen how the 21st century is opening new conduits that schools must learn how to use in order to model the effective uses of new communication tools, prevent abuses on them, and construct learning delivery models.

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Social networks are being embraced by educators as a powerful learning tool. The easiest way to understand them is to remember the grand-daddy of social networks –> people getting together in real time. We meet monthly with the technology educators in our locale which is a social network in and of itself. So to continue our communication and provide a venue to learn how social networking can impact the classroom we’ve created a Ning for this group. Now in addition to our real time meetings we have virtual contact with each other. The network is purposed as a place to share best practices as well as network to share resources, ideas, and teaching strategies.

Wanna see? http://computerliaisons.ning.com

You may recall the sad story of cyberbullying at its worst where Megan Meier fell victim to her ex-friend’s mother who masqueraded as a love interest who sowed messages of hate that would eventually wind up in Megan’s suicide. This has brought national attention to the very real danger of cyberbullying and the consequences that it can wreak on a young developing mind.

Well justice is beginning now that the mother has been indicted by a federal grand jury for her role in the cruel hoax that resulted in the death of a 13 year old. Salvador Hernandez from the Los Angeles FBI office said the following of the case: (more…)