Schools and Tech Unknown

SaTP_38_Learning_and_the_Brain_pt._2.mp3
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News of the Week:1) The World is Obsessed with Facebook, a staggering kinetic typography video on how much the world uses Facebook. - KB2) Negative+Math+Stereotypes=Too few women  TAT
Women earned only 18% of all Computer Science degrees and made up less than 25% of the workers in engineering- and computer-related fields in 2009. These statistics stand in stark contrast to the gains they have achieved in law, medicine, and other areas of the workforce.  3) QuickCite  TAT
Scan your books. Rock your world.  Need to cite a reference?
Don't worry, we got your back.  Just scan the barcode of a book and receive the citation in your email inbox.
Main Topic:   Learning and the Brain Follow-Up
A Growing Trend for Dealing with WMDs* in the Classroom: Tech Breaks

“If you keep tech away/off for 15 minutes, then we will have a short tech break” - Students don't fret about checking (and surreptitiously try to check phones, etc)... and they report being happier *Wireless Mobile Devices”  



The Marshmallow Test - In the late 1960s, psychologist Walter Mischel performed a series of tests on preschoolers referred to as The Marshmallow Tests. Mischel would give a child a single marshmallow, then leave him or her alone in the room with it. Before he departed, he'd make each kid an offer: if they wanted to, they could eat it immediately -- but if they waited for him to return, they'd get two marshmallows. The tests were designed to examine willpower and the mental processes behind delayed gratification. Watching kids go through the experiment can be poignant... and adorable.



Open Phone Tests - is this the wave of the future?



Global Assessment Alternatives

PISA testing - OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)


 

 

actual numbers from The Principal Difference
Erik Hanushek’s take on the PISA cross-comparisons






Tim's Tech Tidbit:

Home Broadband continued:  Wireless Access Point Security (“use the password!”) and change the channel (conflicts with phones and microwaves)

Endorsements:
Roger: Teach Genetics - Great background material and hands-on labs designed for educators.  Down-loadable lesson plans, plus can go online to do virtual labs & Sherry Turkle - Alone Together -- Why We Expect More from Technology and less from each other.

Cammy:  Vassar’s Sistine Chapel in Second Life (YouTube Clip)

Kevin:  Kindle for Windows or Mac OSX

Tim: Learn to Code: The Full Beginner’s Guide (LifeHacker)

- Learn How to Code this Weekend

- Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code



 





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SaTP_37_Learning_and_the_Brain_Conference.mp3
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1)   iPad passes Reed College higher ed test  TAT (tuaw.com)
Reed College took the Apple iPad for a spin in 2010 and was pleased with the tablet's performance as an educational tool.2) A Dozen or So Reasons I Applaud Lamar High School for Ditching School Library Books by Lisa Nielsen  TAT (Tech&Learning)
Librarians, educators, and parents are up in arms after Principal James McSwain of Lamar High School in Houston, Texas ditched many of the books in his library and re-opened the facility as a high-tech Reading / Research Center & Coffee Shop this year.3) Watson wins ‘Jeopardy!’ bout against humans KB http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/02/16/watson-wins-jeopardy-bout-against-humans/Main Topic: Learning and The Brain - iGeneration: How the Digital Age Is Altering Student Brains, Learning & Teaching
Tim's Tech Tidbit:
Home networking, broadband connectivity and NAT (Network Address Translation) (wired vs. wireless)
Endorsements: Sean: Anti-endorsement! Down with PowerPoint!  

Endorsing Presentation Zen and writings of Guy Kawasaki

Cammy: Notability

Kevin: Portal videogame





The Race for the Double Helix Watson and Crick race to find the structure of DNA before Linus Pauling, Maurice Wilkins, or Rosalind Franklin can find the key to unlocking the secret. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093815/

Tim:



 





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SaTP_#36_Nextvista.org_and_Rushton_Hurley.mp3
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News of the Week:
 
1) Introducing TEDbooks
We're thrilled to announce the launch of TEDBooks, an imprint of short nonfiction works designed for digital distribution. Shorter than traditional books, TEDBooks run less than 20,000 words each -- long enough to explain a powerful idea, but short enough to be read in a single sitting. … Does this mean the dumbing down of reading? Actually, we suspect people reading TEDBooks will be trading up rather than down. They'll be reading a short, compelling book instead of browsing a magazine or doing crossword puzzles. Our goal is to make ideas accessible in a way that matches modern attention spans. … TEDBooks are available from Amazon.com as Kindle Singles. They can be purchased for $2.99 each, and can be read on any device equipped with the Kindle app: iPad, Mac, PC, Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows 7 smartphones.Gunn High School in Palo Alto
http://gunnlibrary.tumblr.com/2) New A.P. Bio Ready to Roll but US History Isn’t - NYT 3) Future Shock  2.2  Alvin Toffler was “spot on” in his prescient disquisition of 1966.  Now his associates have offered another rubric for thinking about what may well be coming down the pike. They offer these thoughts free on line at   http://www.toffler.com/docs/40%20for%20the%20Next%2040%20101011%20FINAL.pdf4) Study Finds Social-Skills Teaching Boosts Academics - EdWeek
Social and emotional education seeks to provide a foundation for academic instruction by teaching students skills in self-awareness and management, getting along with others and decision-making. 5) Apple patents an iPad stylus... For students? - NYT
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, made this observation last year when he said students need a pen to be able to interact with a tablet in a school setting. Mr. Gates said that the iPad is good for reading, but not necessarily creating.
Others are thinking about it. What if Apple were to make a stylus for the iPad that also was a recording device like the Livescribe pen?Or better, imagine your professor talks and it’s all auto-transcribed to your iPad.6) Technology and Schools: Should We Add More or Pull the Plug? - HuffPost - Laurie David is the author of The Family Dinner. Susan Stiffelman is the author of Parenting Without Power Struggles
It is time to engage in a purposeful, reasoned debate about where we're headed with the use of digital devices in the classroom. We recognize that there is tremendous value in technology and learning, and are by no means advocating abstinence. But we need to be cautious about plugging our kids in more, pushing them into an even greater dependence on electronics. We need balance that stems from understanding that more isn't necessarily better.7) Tree octopus exposes internet illiteracy mySA
Most students “simply have very little in the way of critical evaluation skills,” Leu said. “They may tell you they don’t believe everything they read on the Internet, but they do.”Main Topic: Rushton Hurley from NextVista.org







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SaTP_35_State_of_the_Union.mp3
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News of the Week:
 
1) Kevin’s new Chrome Laptop
 
2) Internet Down in Egypt. Yahoo and Fox News - Thurs pm
CAIRO – Internet service in Egypt was disrupted and the government deployed an elite special operations force in Cairo on Friday, hours before an anticipated new wave of anti-government protests.
Jeff Jarvis on the Huffington Post  Support for the Disconnected in Egypt 3) Keep All the Top Teachers - OpEd by Michelle Rhee, Sunday (Jan 22) - NYT
(toward the end) - In his State of the Union address, President Obama should call for a federal law that would require states to help parents ascertain whether their children are getting the high-quality instruction they need to prepare for college and the work force. Parents who find that their children are not being taught by an effective teacher in a successful school should have the right to vote with their feet by choosing a different school.
Now that 12 of the 50 states have laws that allow school administrators to consider teacher effectiveness in making layoff decisions, one in four children in America stand to benefit. President Obama must make an all-out effort to help the other three.4) Does College Make You Smarter - OpEd Debate, Mon (Jan 24) - NYT
A recent book titled "Academically Adrift," claims that 45 percent of the nation's undergraduates learn very little in their first two years of college.
The study, by two sociologists, Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia, also found that half of the students surveyed did not take any classes requiring 20 pages of writing in their prior semester, and one-third did not take any courses requiring 40 pages of reading a week.
The research has come in for some criticism. But a larger question is: Have colleges, in their efforts to keep graduation rates high and students happy, dumbed down their curriculums?5) Google and Mozilla Announce New Privacy Features - Tanzina Vega, Mon (Jan 24) - NYT
[In Firefox] The mechanism, being called a Do Not Track HTTP header, would rely on companies that receive the information to agree not to collect data.... Tracking Protection for Internet Explorer 9 that would rely on lists that users create that indicate which sites they do not want to share information with....Google’s approach relies on a browser extension, or plug-in, called Keep My Opt-Outs that will work with all versions of its Chrome browser. The extension would allow users to permanently opt out of being tracked by online advertisers who already offer opt-out options through self-regulation programs6) Severe Mental Health Disorders Untreated in Many U.S. Teens - MedicineNet.Com
Researchers examined data from a nationally representative sample of 6,483 adolescents, aged 13 to 18, and found that only 36.2% of those with any mental disorder received treatment.
The disorders most likely to be treated were attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (59.8%) and behavior disorders, such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder (combined 45.4%), study author Kathleen Ries Merikangas, of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, and colleagues found.
On the other hand, only about one in five teens with anxiety, eating or substance abuse disorders received treatment. In addition, Hispanic and black adolescents were less likely than whites to receive treatment for mood and anxiety disorders, even when the disorders caused severe impairment, the researchers noted.7) Barak Obama’s State of the Union Address - Racing to the Top =?= our Sputnik Moment



Tim's Tech Tidbit:
The era of the appstore - discussing the arrival of the MacAppStore on the sceneEndorsements:

Cammy: The Wave by Susan Casey

Kevin: the friend ID game in facebook when abraod and increased security in facebook

Tim: introducing the Apps Marketplace’s new EDU category











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SaTP_34_Cal_Leage_of_Schools_PLC_and_Tech_Conference.mp3
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News of the week:


1) In Florida, virtual classrooms with no teachers - NYTimes
 
MIAMI — On the first day of her senior year at North Miami Beach Senior High School, Naomi Baptiste expected to be greeted by a teacher when she walked into her precalculus class.
 
“All there were were computers in the class,” said Naomi, who walked into a room of confused students. “We found out that over the summer they signed us up for these courses.”
Naomi is one of over 7,000 students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools enrolled in a program in which core subjects are taken using computers in a classroom with no teacher. A “facilitator” is in the room to make sure students progress. That person also deals with any technical problems. 2) (On a related note) Bill Gates Says Tech Is The Key to Driving Down College Costs
(3 min clip)

“trying to provide a $200,000 education to every kid who wants it- and only technology can bring that down not just to $20,000 but to $2,000”
pro-KIPP & charter schools’ immersing students in learning - “Thank god for charters. There’s no room for innovation in the standard system.... There should be about 20 times as much [experimentation] as there is.”
note he doesn’t predict radical changes in K-12 by virtue of parents’ need for someone to “babysit” - ouch


Dissent Magazine on Bill Gates in education via Arts & Letters
http://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=37813) New MIT OpenCourseWare Initiative Aims to Improve Independent Online Learning
These aren't distance learning classes - there is no instructor, no contact with MIT, no credit. But the courses are meant to be stand-alone offerings, not requiring any additional materials for learning.4) Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua I haven’t read the book, but I’ve been enjoying the national dialog over it. Anyone else? - KBhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-heffernan-/if-youll-do-anything-for-_b_810350.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/opinion/18brooks.html?src=me&ref=homepage
http://www.montereyherald.com/entertainment/ci_170877055) 3 Big Reasons Harvard Has A Record Number of Applicants - Edudemic - CT (#1 and # also fit for Stanford according to recent articles...Stanford received 23,956 applications for admission to the Class of 2011. This number represents an increase of more than 7 percent from last year.  2,465 applicants, or 10.3 percent, were admitted.)
Harvard had nearly 35,000 applications versus last year’s 30,489. That’s 15 percent more applicants than last year, which was also a record-setting year.
This meteoric rise has a reason. It’s not just because Harvard is a good school with a good reputation. It’s in part due to the generous financial aid program.  -- Harvard College’s financial aid program requires no contribution from families with annual incomes below $60,000, and asks, on average, no more than 10 percent of income from families with typical assets who make up to $180,000
Two other factors also may have played a role in this year’s record total. The new School of Engineering and Applied Sciences continues to attract greater numbers of students who aspire to study engineering, computer science, and related fields.
In addition, more students than ever before, nearly 99 percent, are using online application services. Such services enable students, especially those with few counseling or economic resources, to apply to college more easily. -- Applications increased from all geographic areas, but particularly from the South, the Midwest, the Mountain states, the Pacific region, and abroad. Gender breakdown is close to last year’s 50/50 ratio, and minority numbers have continued to rise.
Main Topic:  Kevin’s Snapshot from the CLMS & CLHS Professional Learning Communities and Tech Conference


Google Moderator - feedback and questions/comments during presentations fo

SaTP33.mp3
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1) Rethinking Advanced Placement NYTimes - KB“Next month, the board, the nonprofit organization that owns the A.P. exams as well as the SAT, will release a wholesale revamping of A.P. biology as well as United States history — with 387,000 test-takers the most popular A.P. subject. A preview of the changes shows that the board will slash the amount of material students need to know for the tests and provide, for the first time, a curriculum framework for what courses should look like. The goal is to clear students’ minds to focus on bigger concepts and stimulate more analytic thinking. In biology, a host of more creative, hands-on experiments are intended to help students think more like scientists.”2) PBS Newshour - “Is Technology Wiring Teens to Have Better Brains?” - (10 min video)
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june11/digitalbrain_01-05.html  3)  KhanApp Offers Free Education To Go
Education on-the-go is now easier thanks to Khan Academy's mobile application. KhanApp is a mobile webapp that offers a full-fledged application experience around your favorite Khan Academy videos.4) Virginia Poised to Ban Teacher-Student Texting, Facebooking - (ReadWriteWeb)
Such is the case with a set of guidelines, set to be voted on this week by the Virginia Board of Education, that will establish the state's policy for how students and teachers can interact via text-messaging, social networking, and online gaming. In a nutshell: they can't. 5) Connectomics from NYT’s “In Pursuit of a Mind Map, Slice by Slice”  - mapping memory and personality in the brain; “The connectome is a product of your genes and your experiences. It’s where nature meets nurture.”







The project’s actual website: http://www.humanconnectomeproject.org/  

Image from Flickr
This project is presently working to achieve the following goals: 1) develop sophisticated tools to process high-angular diffusion (HARDI) and diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) from normal individuals to provide the foundation for the detailed mapping of the human connectome; 2) optimize advanced high-field imaging technologies and neurocognitive tests to map the human connectome; 3) collect connectomic, behavioral, and genotype data using optimized methods in a representative sample of normal subjects; 4) design and deploy a robust, web-based informatics infrastructure, 5) develop and disseminate data acquisition and analysis, educational, and training outreach materials.




Main Topic: A Quaker Education in a High-Tech Era with Guybe Slangen, Assistant Head of San Francisco Friends School - a K–8 co-educational independent school that combines outstanding academics with Quaker values of simplicity, integrity, mutual respect, and peaceful problem-solving.

Endorsements:
Cammy:  http://www.teachparentstech.org/

Kevin: backpacks! I like the Kata DR 467i

Tim: How to Audit and Update Your Passwords

Researcher Develops Password Hacking Software for Wi-Fi Networks Using Amazon Web Services









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