Blog Juice for Educational Technology

Has it really been that long? Yep. Six years since the voucher lobby last took a chance and put the issue of private school vouchers to a vote of the people. And the people of Michigan and California left little doubt as to what they thought of the concept.

After that twin debacle in 2000, voucher advocates focused their energies and dollars on politicians instead, working to elect pro-voucher candidates and convince state legislatures to enact programs. On that front they’ve had only middling success but at least they haven’t been skunked like they were when the voters weighed in.

Which brings us to Florida. When the state Supreme Court struck down Florida’s flagship voucher program earlier this month, we noted its potentially devastating blow to the national movement. Last week in Tallahassee some of the biggest names in the voucher movement got together as talk of a potential constitutional amendment to salvage vouchers continued to percolate. Will the issue actually reach voters’ November ballots? The Legislature convenes in early March.

If it does get that far, expect “accountability” to be a major issue. Florida’s voucher programs have been riddled with scandals. And lack of accountability factored prominently in the Supreme Court’s decision, which noted that private voucher schools, despite receiving taxpayer dollars, do not face the same basic requirements the state’s public schools do, such as public reporting of student achievement, teacher qualifications and academic standards. Some politicians and pundits recently have speculated the decision threatens lots of education programs, practically suggesting that the ruling means every classroom in Florida must have the same color paint on the walls. Seems to us the Court laid it out pretty clearly. On big issues like public accountability and academic performance of students, there’s a double standard between public schools and voucher schools.

At the Tallahassee event, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, said this: “If you don’t measure, you don’t care. In Florida, we care, so we measure the be-jesus out of everything.” Everything that is except private voucher schools.

Secretary Spellings issued a statement commemorating the 20th anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Challenger.

Secretary Spellings issued a statement observing Catholic Schools Week.

There’s a battle brewing in cities across the country, one with important implications for schools.

On one side are municipal governments that want to extend wireless internet access citywide. On the other side are lo…

Last week, I posted, on the Technology & Learning Blog, a fictitious letter from a principal to the parents of his school’s students. A copy of the letter is attached below. The letter received a good bit of response, not only from readers, but also a follow-up letter from my friend and fellow […]

Jumping off of the CUNY discussion from yesterday comes this piece in today’s Times about how a Swiss magazine decided to cover the recent riots in the Paris suburbs. It’s a great comparison of how traditional methods are being replaced by the immediacy of the new tools.

The blog turned their work routine upside down. Typically, they would do their reporting, then write the main piece for the magazine, and finally perhaps, a related feature or a reporter’s notebook.

But with the blog, said Serge Michel, a world affairs editor who opened the office, “we report and immediately write and publish an initial draft, giving a first tentative shape to the narrative.” When the staff members sit down to compose that piece for the magazine, the reporters have days of this “flow writing” behind them.

And later…

The reporters say they found a new relationship with their readers, who are invited to leave comments. The journalists engage in the discussions, and have used reader feedback as inspiration for more posts.

I wonder as I read articles like this what the demands will be of our current and future students in terms of writing. I’m not suggesting that the basics of written communication will change that much, but I am suggesting that the purposes of that communication as we currently teach it are going to have to be reconsidered. Writing the essay or the narrative or the story for the teacher only these days is to take a very narrow view of what writing is for. That’s not to say everything gets published. But as I walked through the hallways last week at the semester break and saw teachers attacking stacks of final, culminating papers that their students had “handed in” instead of published to a wider audience (and potentially more effective assessment,) I couldn’t help thinking how much our students are missing in terms of what it really means to write these days.

Considering I took this with my Treo…click to see the big verstion.

KANAWHA, Iowa Farming is a familiar way of life for children growing up in rural Iowa. But even for a first-grader with roots deep in the Iowa soil, it takes some effort to really understand the science of agriculture…

WHAT’S BLACK AND WHITE and read all over? In today’s schools, less and less. Studies suggest that the use of color in the classroom is an easy yet effective method educators can implement to promote faster development in their students. Color increases re

In 2005, Corpus Christi Independent School District (CCISD) met its Adequate Yearly Progress targets under No Child Left Behind for the third year in a row. All but one of the district’s 61 schools was rated “academically acceptable” or better, and more t

Anyone beaten up for being too keen in class will welcome the latest development in classroom technology. School pupils equipped with hand-held keypads connected wirelessly to electronic whiteboards can now answer teachers’ questions - without their class

Discussing the general need for systemic reform in American education is becoming an increasingly popular pastime in the ed-tech blogosphere, which is all well and good, and indeed that was my professional focus before I morphed into an ed-tech guy. However, I’d argue that ed-tech is at least as much of a mess as education in general at thio point….

If you’re reading this in an aggregator, would you mind letting me know? Bloglines seems to have dropped my feed for about a week and I can’t tell if it’s them or me. Thanks…