I am currently enrolled in a combined technology certifications course. Upon completion of a number of certification-targeted classroom instruction hours and after taking multiple practice tests, we, isolated from any and all digital and human resources (even our wallets and purses are not allowed), are subjected to an intense, time-regulated multiple choice test for each certification. To be fair, the tests include a few "simulations" which are little more than drag and drop exercises. The test questions are determined by the certification authority, proctored by an employee of the instructional organization, and administered remotely by Pearson VUE.
Two points:
technology certification instruction. Think about that for a minute then visualize a standard 1980's classroom configuration. Add a computer on each desk. The instructor's desk is to the right front of the room so as not to block the information being projected from the overhead projector onto the screen at the front of the room. For the most part the instructor projects and reads from the certification authority's text interrupting only to address questions that are thankfully allowed at any point. Students may observe what is being read on the screen at the front of the room or follow along on their personal computers. The text does contain many reinforcing graphical representations. Periodically within the test are computer-based practical exercises that attempt to replicate the real thing using an artificial user interface that in itself requires familiarization. Infrequently (two in a two-month period) a half-day "lab" is conducted. The labs represent limited reality, e.g., setting up a network switch that is not connected to a network. Somehow what we've learned in the past 30 years about pedagogies, instructional technologies, and integrating technology into classrooms and curriculums have bypassed the exulted organizations that control technology certifications and those that instruct toward certification achievement.
isolated from any and all digital and human resources. The work world is all about sharing, communicating, and collaborating. In a very long and varied career, I have only experienced one job wherein I was unable to correspond with or seek help from others in a timely manner. It was when I was a high school teacher. Not that help wasn't available overtime, just when most needed. Anyway, for the most part, the work world now expects, even demands, teamwork. Recently I read an article that in a sentence capsulized the way work success has evolved. "We all know who invented the light bulb but who invented the iPhone?" Yet we continue to test knowledge in isolation rather than performance within a group. The future lies in developing and administering team performance tests that also measure individual knowledge and collaborative acuity.
This book is available for download with iBooks on your Mac or iOS device.
This guide will help teachers understand what type of content is available in each of the iTunes stores, how to access the stores from a Mac or iPad, and find tips on how to search each store and education curated collections for the type of content they might use in their classrooms. The Guide walks through 2 sample lesson topics to help showcase the wide range of materials a teacher might use in a lesson, and encourages creative thinking about using content beyond Apps when teaching with iPad.
At EdSurge we find another numbered sure thing. Every day we see hundreds of the X Best...., X Ways to...., X Keys to...., X Must-Haves...., XX Apps That..., X Steps...., and on and on. Many of the recommended apps and applications are probably useful but do you really want to spend hours daily reviewing and testing them? And many, if not most, of the others are platitudinous and, frankly, embarrassing. Just take a look at the "Six Must-Haves for a Teacher Effectiveness Technology Platform."
1. The platform must deliver high-quality professional development resources.
2. It must provide on-demand, 24/7 access.
3. It must provide highly targeted and personalized PD.
Originally posted on Diane Ravitch. Where are the unions on this mess? Read a career teacher's open letter to Cindy Kickna, President of IEA. This is what gives unions a bad name. Who do they really represent if not the teachers and students?
Just one paragraph:
Please, if you are going to take our money and purport to represent teachers collectively in Illinois, it is incumbent upon you to educate yourself about the reality of the monumental bamboozle that is corporate reform. I recommend Diane Ravitch’s book Reign of Error for starters, and her blog is a daily format for exposing the damaging effects of the move to privatize and profitize education. Todd Farley’s book Making the Grades is an insider’s expose of Pearson’s shoddy test design process and and standardized test-grading mills.
The principles were created by the Great Schools Partnership. To fully appreciate term nuances, you might want to follow the links to the GSP "Glossary of Education Reform" website. Philosophically I find little to argue with here but, as always, it's seldom the principles that are in dispute. No, it's the method by which they are implemented. These 10 principles are intended as, "a good resource for states, districts and schools to start the conversation about the new policies and practices that need to be put in place". Great intention, however, our experience has been that the conversation starts and stops at the federal or state level where implementation becomes dictatorial or at best threatening. GSP tries to take a neutral position on the controversial elements of the principles. For example, browse to the Summative assessments link and at the very bottom of the page is the following:
Debate
While there is little disagreement among educators about the need for or utility of summative assessments, debates and disagreements tend to center on issues of fairness and effectiveness, especially when summative assessment results are used for high-stakes purposes. In these cases, educators, experts, reformers, policy makers, and others may debate whether assessments are being designed and used appropriately, or whether high-stakes tests are either beneficial or harmful to the educational process. For more detailed discussions of these issues, see high-stakes test, measurement error, test accommodations, test bias, score inflation,standardized test, and value-added measures.
All learning expectations are clearly and consistently communicated to students and families, including long-term expectations (such as graduation requirements and graduation standards), short-term expectations (such as the learning objectives for a specific lesson), and general expectations (such as the performance levels used in the school’s grading and reporting system).
Student achievement is evaluated against common learning standards and performance expectations that are consistently applied to all students, regardless of whether they are enrolled in traditional courses, pursuing alternative learning pathways or receiving academic support.
All forms of assessment are standards-based and criterion-referenced, and success is defined by the achievement of expected standards, not relative measures of performance or student-to-student comparisons.
Formative assessments evaluate learning progress during the instructional process and are not graded; formative-assessment information is used to inform instructional adjustments, practices, and support.
Summative assessments evaluate learning achievement and are graded; summative assessment scores record a student’s level of proficiency at a specific point in time.
Grades are used to communicate learning progress and achievement to students and families; grades are not used as forms of punishment or control.
Academic progress and achievement is monitored and reported separately from work habits, character traits, and behaviors such as attendance and class participation.
Students are given multiple opportunities to retake assessments or improve their work when they fail to meet expected standards.
Students are given opportunities to make important decisions about their learning, which includes contributing to the design of learning experiences and personalized learning pathways.
The Illinois PARCC results were released yesterday and with no surprises. Failure! It's happening in all the PARCC states. I know a little about why but I wanted the perspective of a teacher so I reached out to one for whom I have great respect. She's an insightful Chicago teacher of disadvantaged 8th-grade students who cares. Late last night she responded by email. The story she tells is sad and admittedly angers me as it should anyone who reads this. How could our so-called leaders be so incompetent? Or is it part of a plan to demoralize the students and teachers and in the process destroy traditional public schooling? Or are they just plain stupid? Here is her email. I have removed a partial sentence that contains personal information.
First of all, the students are not accustomed to taking a test on the computer. There are different tools and if you don't have adequate technology in the building, it is hard to expose the students to all the different tools on the test. I had to use a computer projected on my whiteboard to show the students how to use the tools. Now we all know that we learn best by practicing it ourselves. Students weren't given that opportunity because IL has failed to make sure that EVERY school in the State has the same resources (you know, like a functioning computer lab, for starters). Students aren't used to typing answers either. They had to explain in writing their thinking but most students don't have the typing skills. So some just typed the bare minimum which probably wasn't adequate for PARCC evaluators.
The CCSS are not specific enough. The writers sure think they are but they are clueless. For example, I am teaching 8.EE.1 right now, which are the laws of exponents. I have no idea how in-depth I need to go with that but I do know it is on PARCC. I could spend two weeks easily on laws of exponents but is it necessary? I'm not sure. It is a guessing game as to how deep you need to go. I read some of the standards and I'm like whaaaatttt? I have to Google it and get examples that I am hoping adequately address the standard. I am also relying on other interpretations of the standard and am always left wondering - is this what the writers intended it to mean? Do they not realize how many teachers there are in this state let alone who teach CCSS and the many interpretations that come with it? Did the writers not realize that the stupid little example they provide italicized in the CCSS isn't enough and there are so many interpretations of just one standard?????? No one really knows what they want or expect because CCSS is not specific enough. Kids also misinterpret questions. I hope PARCC looked at common mistakes and analyzed whether or not the kids misinterpreted the question. I know there were a couple of questions that students had asked me about and I could see it being a problem.
Students can do the problems if they are exposed to the types of questions that are being asked. If I were provided resources that showed the many different ways a question could be asked that address the standard, I could expose my students to those questions. They are children and need to be taught how to tackle questions that require extensive thinking. They don't come with college degrees and shouldn't be expected to have that level of thinking. Teachers don't even think of asking questions in some of the ways that they are asked on PARCC. Give us plenty of samples so we can work with students and help them develop those types of thinking skills. To just throw these questions at them with the attitude that they should know how to do it if they were taught a standard is unfair and does not work.
CCSS assumes that every child has the foundational skills. The way the CCSS should have been rolled out is one grade at a time. Start with Kindergarten. Make all Kindergarten teachers teach it for a year. Then the next year do K and 1st. Then the following year K, 1st, and 2nd and so forth. To expect my 8th graders last year to have mastered all the vague 8th grade CCSS without the 7 years of foundation was completely unfair to them and a waste of everyone's time. These standards build on one another. The creators knew they built in a progression of the math skills from year to year but none of them allowed for that progression to occur in the roll out.
I also don't know what to teach when. They tested 75% of the CCSS on the first part of the PARCC test given in April. Okay. What standards comprised the 75%? No one was told that and everyone just kind of went with whatever standards they wanted to teach throughout the year. We were never told these are the standards that should have been taught by the time of PARCC. So some of the questions my students were tested on hadn't even been taught to them yet because those standards were part of my 25%.
On the reading part, if the students had a question with two parts and they got the first part wrong, they didn't even grade the second part. So right there, that sets the kids up for failure.
There were no resources available to CPS teachers last year either. CPS wanted to make sure that math textbooks were aligned to the CCSS and did a review of textbooks to check for alignment. The Math Department just released approved textbooks that schools could use in June. I'm glad CPS took that time to really analyze the content of the textbooks but we were left Googling our materials all year. Many schools were using EngageNY ( engageny.org). I'm trying to use that this year but it assumes students have a strong foundation. CCSS doesn't allow time to review skills. CCSS expects you to just progress to the next standard because all the students mastered all the previous years' standards and for that reason you can just move on and not have to review anything- oh such a perfect setting that is far from reality! I, as an educated math teacher, have to refresh my memory. I need a review sometimes, especially with more advanced topics in Algebra. Math seems more fortunate than Reading. The Reading teachers have nothing. They are constantly looking for articles, etc. online. They are creating everything from scratch.
Teachers received their degrees in curriculum delivery not curriculum creation. We should have resources that contain materials that adequately help us teach the standards and provide us with a plethora of questions that help us expose student to those questions. I was hired to teach not design. Spending all this time researching the meaning of the standards, researching how in-depth teachers are teaching a skill in a standard, reviewing other interpretations of the standards, hoping that the materials we are using is adequate for the standard, etc. is draining on a teacher. You never feel satisfied because you are never sure if you have taught everything that was expected to be mastered in the standard.
It would help middle school teachers if there were a requirement that primary and intermediate teachers were required to have endorsements in a subject area. Many K-5 teachers lack the confidence in math and do not adequately teach it. So the gap is going to widen even more with CCSS. Students are going to have an even shakier foundation than pre-CCSS.
Okay. I'm tired. I hope it helps. Excuse any grammatical errors. I wanted to just get something to you ... and any other free time this weekend requires me to devote it to lesson plans and figuring out the CCSS.
Oh yeah - wait till next year when the data for Science is released. Those NGSS are complicated and Science teachers have no materials to adequately teach them. The fun continues!
Over the past 10 years, there has been no appreciable improvement in student achievement in reading, mathematics or science, on average, in countries that have invested heavily in information and communication technologies for education. In 2012, in the vast majority of countries, students who used computers moderately at school had somewhat better learning outcomes than students who used computers rarely; but students who used computers very frequently at school did a lot worse, even after accounting for the students’ socio-economic status.
“School systems need to find more effective ways to integrate | technology into teaching and learning to provide educators with learning environments that support 21st century pedagogies and provide children with the 21st century skills they need to succeed in tomorrow’s world,” said Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills. “Technology is the only way to dramatically expand access to knowledge. To deliver on the promises technology holds, countries need to invest more effectively and ensure that teachers are at the forefront of designing and implementing this change.”
The United States:
The socio-economic divide in Internet access in the United States has not yet closed. In 2012, about one in five (20.2%) disadvantaged students – those among the bottom 25% in socio-economic status – did not yet have a link to the Internet at home. In the same year, 97% of the remaining students (those among the more advantaged 75% in socio-economic status) had access to the Internet at home.
Fifteen-year-olds in the United States perform above the OECD average in the PISA tests of digital reading (511 points on the PISA digital reading scale). They are also better than average in evaluating which links can lead them to relevant pages as they read on line. When looking for information on the web, only 11% of students navigate in an unfocused way, if at all – compared to 15% of students, on average, across OECD countries.
In 2012, schools in the United States serving 15-year-olds had about five school computers available for every nine students. The students-per-computer ratio of 1.8-to-1 is one of the lowest among the 34 OECD countries.
A particularly obvious and significant finding:
The report found that the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students in digital reading was very similar to the differences in performance in the traditional PISA reading test, despite the vast majority of students using computers whatever their background. This suggests that to reduce inequalities in digital skills, countries need to improve equity in education first.
We've all heard of the LAUSD 1:1 debacle but as the title states, "The saga continues: Report finds ongoing iPad problems at LAUSD". At a cost of $340,000, the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research conducted a review of the current 1:1 situation. They released their report on September 2. What they discovered is that little has changed and that the district continues to fail at proper planning, testing, preparation, and execution. Something I could have told them for far fewer dollars. Back in October of 2013 a guest blogger at K12 News Network published a chart that details the difference between a successful implementation and the LAUSD failure. Very telling. The questions that continue to go unanswered is, Why did LAUSD officials mess up so badly and why do they continue to do so? What is wrong at the district level?
Over at rapidbi.com is another attempt at explaining the difference between training and development. The site targets businesses with the primary purpose of selling online software applications, but once in a while, there are articles of value. This one could apply to any organization and is worth a read. Here a few highlights:
In general:
Traditionally training has comprised the of learning a set of skills. Or predictable actions or behaviour. This change in skills and behaviour is usually aimed at improving the current job performance of an individual. Training may also prepare an individual for a potential job or role.
Development not only seeks to improve performance in a role, but seeks to bring out some form of maturity growth. Development is used to increase the potential of an employee as well as equip them to be ‘better’ individuals.
Training compared to Development
Comparison Chart of Training & Development
COMPARISON
TRAINING
DEVELOPMENT
Meaning
The action of teaching a person a particular skill or type of behaviour.
The action of providing the opportunity for an individual to improve their general knowledge and abilities for their overall growth.
Term
Short Term
Long Term
Focus on
Present/ immediate need
Future role
Concentrated towards
Job & ability
Career & possibility
Who leads?
Trainer
Self
Purpose
To improve the work performance or capabilities of an employee.
To prepare individuals for future challenges.
Number of people
One or many
Only one
Aim
Specific job or role related
Conceptual and general knowledge
The Purpose of Training
To provide the ability to undertake a task or job
To improve productivity and workforce flexibility
To improve safety and quality
To develop the capability of the workforce
The Purpose of Development
More productive management and leadership come from better educated and informed managers. Research has shown that the performance of managers can be improved through:
The purpose of ‘development’ is to improve leadership effectiveness through planned and structured learning. A planned approach to developing managers and leaders will enable the growth of managers. It will also provide for the future needs of the business or organisation.
The article emphasizes that training is best conducted on-the-job rather than in a classroom.
In the past (the 1970s & 1980s), training was associated with being in a classroom with a trainer or instructor. A training course started at the beginning, ended at the end, and everyone in the room got the same things.
The world has moved on.
I have pontificated on this point before. Too often we all sit through a training workshop on a particular subject in which we have no or little interest or of which we really need some small part. That "some small part" is presented, but we miss it while looking at our smartphone messages. Besides, even if we heard the lecture and observed the demonstration, could we have performed "some small part" on our own? We'll never know. What is needed is just-in-time performance oriented training (POT): (1) need identified and communicated, (2) subject matter expert appears and trains to the task, (3) repetitive performance of task, (4) critique and re-training as necessary.
This is a monthly budget I put it together for a friend who was frequently overdrawing his bank account. It tracks daily expenditures and balance. While simple, it contains some unique features. Here is an example for downloading and modifying to your needs. It is not necessary to understand the formulas in order to use the budget spreadsheet. You can just change the categories of expenses, notes, target amounts and prepopulated expenses then record your daily expenses as they occur.
If you wish to see all the formulas in the spreadsheet at once:
Windows PC - ctrl + ` (the acute accent key, found next to the number 1 on your keyboard)
Mac - Cmd + `
Note that the columns automatically expand so as to reveal the formulas.
The primary purposes of this budget are to track expenditures, let users known what the ending month's balance is likely to be and pinpoint exactly where they stand at all times during the month .
The white fill space (F6:AI31) is where users enter expenditures. Inserting explanatory comments in the cells can be helpful (right click on the cell, click Insert Comment and enter your comment. Comments are denoted by a small red triangle in the upper left corner of cells.
Cell B3 [=MIN(INDIRECT(D3):AI5)] contains the lowest balance based on the following:
Cell B2 contains the likely ending balance based on projected income less the target expenditures [=F3+SUM(F4:AI4)-D32].
in cell D2 [=(HLOOKUP(TODAY(),F2:AI5,4))] which return today's balance and
cell D3 [=CELL("Address",INDEX(E5:AI5,MATCH(D2,E5:AI5,0)))] which returns the location of today's balance.
And cell B4 contains the date that the lowest balance will occur [=INDEX(F2:AI2,MATCH(B3,F5:AI5,0))].
Row 3 beginning at Column F reflects the amount available as each day begins and Row 4 beginning at Column F reflects the total of the amounts incoming during that day. Row 5 beginning at Column F reflects the amount remaining at the end of the day. Rows 3 and 5 are computed automatically and Row 4 is input by users.
Each month is recorded on a separate Excel worksheet. To get started funds carried over from the previous are automatically recorded in cell F3 and the first date of the month is carried over from the last date of the previous month plus 1 into cell F2. The remaining cells in column 2 are computed by adding 1 to the previous cell. The days of the month are returned from a VLOOKUP function [=VLOOKUP(WEEKDAY(F2),$AM$2:$AN$8,2)] from the array at AM2:AN8.
The panes are frozen at F6 to facilitate entering and viewing date in the white fill area [View>Freeze Panes>Freeze Panes].
The light blue fill cells in Column D are the monthly target expenditures for each category. The red fill cells in Column E are the actual expenditures that seldom change so are prepopulated. The darker blue cells in Column E are the expenditures to be recorded as they occur. All the cells in Column E are computed by a simple sum of each row 6 thru 31 [e.g. =SUM F10:AI10)]. The totals of Columns D and E are in Cells D32 and E32. The debit row (Row 32) sums each expenditure column. The cumulative debits and credits are reflected in rows 33 and 34 respectively.
Question: Why is teaching that relies solely on conventional didactic instructional strategies considered ineffective teaching? I was taught that way and achieved a Masters degree and consider myself to be at a somewhat higher than at an intermediate level of technological expertise.
Exactly what are we searching for? I wonder if is there is no there, there. Just seems as though every paradigm, theory and model proposed between then and now has had little if any positive influence on learning.
Two environments: 1) organization leadership is satisfied with the technology status quo; 2) organization leadership desires to update technology.
In the former environment, there is little the technology manager can do other than to promote the need for updating by relating the advances the competition is making and demonstrating the advantages of updating. In the later environment, senior management, having made the decision to update, often gives the tech manager very little time to execute and "incremental" is seldom not part of the discussion. The tech manager can alleviate the time crunch issue over time by continual planning (strategic and tactical) and frequently collaborating, communicating and presenting. Salesmanship is definitely a plus. In any case, you can be sure that there will be end user resistance and that some degree of change management will be required to implement the update(s).
As we all know, changes in technology tend to reverberate throughout entire organizations. Most, if not all, departmental processes are affected. Many policies and procedures may need to be rewritten. Of course, training to some or more extent will be required. Technology changes are seldom silent and invisible. New or significantly updated technologies tend to create fear. Okay, maybe mostly just apprehension but some will literally be scared. Change is stressful especially when it has the potential of affecting livelihoods. Leadership early on must do it best belay the fears and apprehension. Will I lose my job? Will my position be downgraded with less pay? Will my hours be reduced? Will I be able to learn to use the technology? The IT manager gives guidance to leadership and encouragement to employees as possible during this phase.
The IT manager has his/her own apprehensions revolving around whether the new technology will work and whether she/he can pull off a smooth implementation. It is best to follow a change management process of your choosing, one that fits your leadership style and organizational culture. There are many available. I am a proponent of the eight-step change process developed by John P. Kotter, the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. Here is a general outline of the process. More and deeper information can be found at the Kotter International website.
ESTABLISHING A SENSE OF URGENCY
Top leaders must describe an opportunity that will appeal to individuals’ heads and hearts and use this statement to raise a large, urgent army of volunteers.
CREATING THE GUIDING COALITION
Putting together a group with enough power to lead the change. A volunteer army needs a coalition of effective people — coming from its own ranks — to guide it, coordinate it and communicate its activities.
FORM A STRATEGIC VISION AND INITIATIVES
Creating a vision to help direct the change effort and developing strategies for achieving that vision. Dr. Kotter defines strategic initiatives as targeted and coordinated "activities that, if designed and executed fast enough and well enough, will make your vision a reality."
ENLIST A VOLUNTEER ARMY
Using every vehicle possible to constantly communicate the new vision and strategies. Having the guiding coalition role model the behavior expected of employees. Large-scale change can only occur when very significant numbers of employees amass under a common opportunity and drive in the same direction.
ENABLE ACTION BY REMOVING BARRIERS (empowering people to effect change) By removing barriers such as inefficient processes or hierarchies, leaders provide the freedom necessary for employees to work across boundaries.
Getting rid of obstacles (training, training, training)
Changing systems or structures that undermine the change vision
Encouraging risk taking and non-traditional ideas, activities & actions
Engage employees as partners
Provide people with the opportunity to plan for and take action
GENERATING SHORT-TERM WINS - Wins are the molecules of results. They must be collected, categorized, and communicated — early and often — to track progress and energize your volunteers to drive change.
Planning for visible improvements in performance, or “wins”
Creating those wins
Visibly recognizing and rewarding people who made wins possible
SUSTAIN ACCELERATION
Change leaders must adapt quickly in order to maintain their speed. Whether it's a new way of finding talent or removing misaligned processes, they must determine what can be done — every day — to stay the course towards the vision.
Using increased credibility to change systems, structures, and policies that don’t fit together and don’t fit the vision
Hiring, promoting and developing people who can implement the change vision
Develop people and projects to carry on the change vision throughout the organization
INSTITUTE CHANGE
To ensure new behaviors are repeated over the long-term, it's important that you define and communicate the connections between these behaviors and the organization's success.
Creating better performance through customer- and productivity-oriented behavior, more and better leadership, & more effective leadership.
Articulating the connections between new behaviors and organizational success.
Developing means to ensure leadership development and succession.
Of course, before initiating these steps the tech manager has to have performed her/his due diligence: selecting the right technology (maybe more than one initially); networking with other users in similar organizations; and, her/his due diligence: selecting the right technology (maybe more than one initially); networking with other users in similar organizations; and, probably most important, collaborating with key employees; key operational supervisors, senior management, maintenance personnel, and cross-departmental staff.
Chris Aviles on edSurge offers a truly brilliant grading system using Google Forms, Google Sheets and his self-developed student tracking system. I had a similar experience as Chris when I taught high school, however, my solution was not nearly as innovative and I suspect, effective as Chris'.
If you teach, please, please read his article and study his forms. Adapt and adopt as necessary to your situation. Students can sometimes learn as much, maybe more, from the education process than from instruction per se. Peer grading with anonymity and without competition has been shown to be a valuable learning tool.
An Edsurge blog asks, "Can Blended Learning Solve the U.S. Teacher Drought?" Basically, the issue is more about technology replacing people, in this case fully qualified teachers. As a technologist, I fully support the integration of technology in curriculum and lessons, when deemed appropriate by the teacher. Taking it a step further, the blended level is a decision that would be made at the school or district level and consequently dictated to the teachers.
There are obvious advantages to a blended learning model, most having to do with reduced cost or technology filling vacant teacher positions. Neither of these advantages, on the surface that I can see, would have a positive effect on student achievement. Another advantage, that of facilitating differentiated learning, has the potential of going some way toward increasing achievement, at least of certain students. One disadvantage--the need for a larger support staff. Supposedly, the number of support staff would diminish over time as faculty were trained, curricula rewritten, and elearning courses prepared. Reducing face time with experienced teachers, at least at this stage in our technology, can only drive down achievement overall. That is a major disadvantage. One master teacher with one "apprentice" teacher (read less expensive) in a blended learning environment could theoretically teach manage a class of 50 or 60 students. I believe that to be neutral, until I see results.
Will we always need teachers in the classroom? The inroads technology has made into education, in spite of the fact that studies are inclusive regarding value, indicate that technology will, at some point, be the definition of education. Virtual intelligence is already on the cusp of replicating many humanistic characteristics. How far away is it away from becoming a high-quality teacher? A quote from the article: "For example, a computer cannot, as of yet, teach deeper learning and critical thinking." [Emphasis added.]
In The Seventy-Four Conor Williams opines that we need data and lots of it. Why? Well, to prevent an assault on accountability; to correct all education problems (he uses John Dewey to claim that without more data we can't even define those problems); to provide research statistics for policymakers; and to help establish a basis for arguing education. His target--Senator Vitter's, R-LA, bill, the Student Privacy Protection Act which would allow families more control over what student data can be released to the federal government and third parties.
Dr. Williams assumes his readers agree that the "policymakers" best equipped to dictate education policy are the politicians and their appointed educationalists at the state and federal level with the assistance of third parties such as his own New America's Education Policy Program. While he doesn't say so directly, I suspect he blames the nation's inability to achieve true reform over the last 20 years to our failure to collect and share enough data. He laments: "Want to study American students’ reading abilities in grades K–2? There’s essentially no comprehensive national data for you—even though third-grade reading proficiency is a key priority for many policymakers."
And there shouldn't be "comprehensive national data". More and more data in the hands of those least qualified to use it effectively only adds another unnecessary burden on school level administrators and teachers while providing more fodder for state and federal agencies to influence, manipulate and coerce schools toward failed reform efforts mostly involving privatization. Look at what we have already created and guess who is benefited the most: standardized, high-stakes testing; charter schools; teacher mills; Common Core State Standards; and vouchers, to name a few.
August 20, 2015 You probably are already working on your digital toolkit making it ready for the start of a new school year. Part of your preparation will definitely consist of making [a] decision on the kind of web applications and mobil[e] apps you will be incorporating in your teaching. This means that you need to have a fairly decent knowledge of educational web tools out there and the potentialities they can offer to your instruction. To this end and to help you make informed decisions about the technology to use in your class, we went ahead and did some digging into our archive and curated this collection comprising some of the best educational Chrome apps out there. We hope you will find it useful. Enjoy
Free textbooks (aka open textbooks) written by knowledgable scholars are a relatively new phenomenon. Below, find a meta list of 200 Free Textbooks, and check back often for new additions. Also see our online collection, 1150 Free Online Courses from Top Universities.
Microsoft fell far behind Google and Apple in the app race, especially in the education area. Things are changing for the better for education. The store is improving in organization and app quality. Check out the offerings. Many Most are free. Review carefully; many Microsoft apps were previously disappointing, even scams.
I've previously discussed how difficult it is for an individual teacher, no matter the platform, to select appropriate apps for integration. The process needs be a grade and content subject collaborative effort aligned with applicable standards. And educators should be quick to discard and replace while widely advertising their reviews, at least within their PLCs, which btw, should also be composed of like grade and content educators. Again, and this can't be emphasized enough, each teacher must select the apps that complement their individual pedagogy and peculiar student mix. Departments, schools, districts, and states would be badly remiss to dictate standard educational apps. Economies of scale don't come into play when the purchase price is free.
Free Technology for Teachers organized a cumulative list of 138 fabulous, easy to follow videos aimed “at tools for flipping your classroom, videos on managing workflow, social media tips, search strategies, and media production.” But one does not have to be a teacher to find some of these quite useful.
Many of the tools or videos are aimed at assisting anyone using Google docs or apps. 3 Helpful Google Drive Settings is just one of those videos.
This is a definite resource for everyone to bookmark!
Here are a few odds and ends about Microsoft's OneDrive that may not be immediately obvious that are derived from researching questions that I have. This is a lengthy post so I suggest browsing through the headings to determine what issues or questions you have about OneDrive that might be answered herein. A few are technologically mysterious.
Briefly, if you log into Windows 10 using your Microsoft account, you will be automatically logged into your OneDrive account. If OneDrive launches per default, you’ll see a cloud icon in the notification area of your Taskbar. To change OneDrive options, right-click the cloud icon and select Settings.
In the Settings tab you can choose whether OneDrive should start automatically, fetch files from another computer, or collaborate on Office documents. Here you can also Unlink OneDrive and re-associate it with another Microsoft account.Auto save gives you the option to automatically save photos and videos from connected devices. Go to Choose folders to select which files to sync to your local drive. To improve upload speed, head to Performance and allow Onedrive to upload files in batches. Under About, you’ll find useful links to Help pages and the usual official agreements.
In Windows 10, only folders selected to sync to your local drive will be shown in File Explorer’s OneDrive folder. By default, that’s all of them.
A new feature introduced with Windows 10 is the sharing of OneDrive files and folders from the desktop. Right-click the file or folder you would like to share and select Share a OneDrive link and the URL will be saved to your Windows clipboard. Obviously, this only works for items stored on OneDrive.
When using OneDrive on the web or through the mobile app, users can now add shared folders to their OneDrive and sync them to their devices. The Shared Folder sync feature is available for Windows Vista through 10, with the exception of Windows 8.1, and Mac OSX.
Opening a browser window isn’t that different from viewing folders in File Explorer. Head to onedrive.live.com to see everything you’ve got. You won’t be able to change how files and folders are synced — that can only be done from your device — but you can see everything and download what you need. Unfortunately, the web client doesn’t support drag and drop to your computer, but you can drag and drop files into OneDrive.
Choose Folders in OneDrive Settings
In the Choose folders tab in OneDrive Settings you can actually view all the folders stored on OneDrive and their sizes. While you cannot see individual files, if your folders are well organized you’ll know where to find what you need. This way, you could deselect one folder and create space to sync another.
Add OneDrive as a Network Drive
YouTube user Sean Ong demonstrates a more convenient solution, previouslydescribed by Paul Thurrott. Using the link to individual folders from the OneDrive web client, he mapped them as network drives to File Explorer, where they appear like external storage devices. Since you have to log in with your OneDrive credentials, you could add a different account from the one synced to your device.
Briefly, head to OneDrive, open any of your folders and copy the 16 or so characters between id= and %. Then head to This PC in your File Explorer. In theComputer tab, click Map network drive. Where it says Folder:, paste in the characters you just copied and preface them with this URL: https://d.docs.live.net/ The result should look like in the screenshot below. Make sure both Reconnect at sign in and Connect using different credentials are selected, then click Finish, and log in with your OneDrive username and password.
In case you set up two-factor authentication for your Microsoft account, remember that you need an app password for this to work.
Use a Third Party Application
Instead of using the default OneDrive desktop client, you could use a tool likeOdrive for accessing OneDrive on your device. When you unsync files or folders on Odrive, a cloudfx placeholder remains, so you’ll always know what you’ve got. Odrive has the added advantage of not only supporting OneDrive, but a number of other cloud storage services, including Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and others. Odrive is free and you can link an unlimited number of accounts.
Placeholders were an ingenious solution to a common problem: not enough space. Unfortunately, we can’t have nice things when they are too complex for the majority to understand. Certainly, Microsoft is to blame for not offering a more intuitive design.
Files could have been available offline per default, with the option to replace them with placeholders. That’s exactly how Odrive handles syncing, making it the most sensible alternative to a OneDrive desktop client that isn’t serving power users.
You can use OneDrive share files or folders with others, providing a chance to collaborate. However, it’s currently impossible to do this straight from the OneDrive folder in Windows 10.
Digital Trends
To share a folder, you must [go] up [to] the web interface at onedrive.live.com. Find what you want to share and right-click to, then hit Share in the context menu. You can provide view or edit privileges by typing in a recipients’ email address.
Once you share a folder or file, you can see it’s shared by the icon that appears in the lower right hand person, depicting two people just hanging out and enjoying some shared files. Cute, right? If things go south and you need to revoke the sharing privileges, just open the Share menu again.
If you have the OneDrive desktop app for Windows installed on a PC, you can use the Fetch files feature to access all your files on that PC from another computer by going to the OneDrive website. You can even access network locations if they're included in the PC's libraries or mapped as drives. When you browse a PC's files remotely, you can download copies of them to work on. You can also stream video and view photos in a slide show. To access files on your PC remotely, make sure the PC you want to access is turned on and connected to the Internet. OneDrive also needs to be running on that PC, and the Fetch files setting must be selected.
NOTE You can use a PC running Windows 8.1 to fetch files that are on another PC, but you can't fetch files that are on a PC running Windows 8.1, even if you install the OneDrive desktop app on that PC.
Select the Fetch files setting
If you didn't select the Fetch files setting when you set up the OneDrive app, you can select it in Settings.
Go to the PC where OneDrive is installed.
Right-click the OneDrive icon in the notification area, at the far right of the taskbar. (You might need to click the Show hidden icons arrow next to the notification area to see the icon.) Then click Settings.
On the Settings tab, under General, select Let me use OneDrive to fetch any of my files on this PC, and then click OK.
Then, restart the OneDrive app to complete the process.
Right-click the OneDrive icon in the notification area, at the far right of the taskbar. (You might need to click the Show hidden icons arrow next to the notification area to see the icon.) Then click Settings.
Click Start, enter OneDrive in the search box, and then click MicrosoftOneDrive. This opens your OneDrive folder, and also starts the OneDrive service.
TIP To make sure OneDrive always starts when you sign in to Windows, right-click the OneDrive icon in the notification area, and then click Settings. On the Settings tab, under General, select Start OneDrive automatically when I sign in to Windows, and then click OK.
Windows 10 includes OneDrive, and Microsoft’s official party line is that you can’t disable it. That’s not true — there are several ways to disable OneDrive and remove it from File Explorer on Windows 10.
Microsoft provides a group policy setting that can disable OneDrive on Professional editions of Windows 10. Windows 10 Home users can use the below registry hack to get rid of OneDrive instead.
For Windows 10 Home
This method is ideal for users of Windows 10 Home who want to get rid of OneDrive without stripping it completely out of the operating system. It’s completely reversible if you ever want to use OneDrive again.
To do this, first right-click the OneDrive icon in your notification area — it looks like a little white cloud — and select Settings. You might have to click the up arrow button to view all the system tray icons before you see the OneDrive icon.
Uncheck the “Start OneDrive automatically when I sign in to Windows” option and save your settings. OneDrive won’t load at startup anymore.
If you don’t plan on using OneDrive, you may also want to click or tap the “Unlink OneDrive” button here. This will stop OneDrive from syncing until you set it up again. It’ll be grayed out if you haven’t yet set up OneDrive.
You now just need to remove that “OneDrive” option located in the navigation pane of the FIle Explorer window. This requires a quick registry hack.
Download our Remove OneDrive From File Explorer registry hack. Open the .zip file and double-click the appropriate .reg file for for your version of Windows, depending on whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 10. We’ve also included a .reg file that will restore the OneDrive entry if you ever decide you want it back.
OneDrive should vanish from File Explorer immediately after you add the information in the .reg file to your registry. If it doesn’t, try rebooting your PC and re-opening FIle Explorer.
(To check whether you’re using a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 10, open the Start menu and launch the Settings app. Navigate to System > About. Look at “System type” and see whether it says you’re using a “64-bit operating system” or “32-bit operating system.”)
(You could also do this by hand, of course. The above .reg files modify the System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree DWORD value under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}\ to 0, from its default of 1. On 64-bit editions of Windows, it also changes the System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree DWORD value under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6\. To undo the change, set the same settings back to the original value of 1.)
If any local copies of your OneDrive files have synced to your PC, you may want to delete them to free up space. Navigate to the C:\Users\NAME\OneDrive folder, which contains your user’s downloaded OneDrive files. These won’t be automatically deleted when you unlink your account and stop syncing. Deleting them won’t delete them from OneDrive if your account is unlinked from OneDrive — they’ll just be deleted from your local device.
For Windows 10 Professional, Enterprise, and Education
To do this, press the Windows key to open the Start menu’s search box, type gpedit.msc into it, and press Enter to open the Group Policy Editor. Navigate to the following folder:
Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\OneDrive
Double-click the “Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage” policy setting in the right pane, set it to “Enabled,” and click “OK.”
This completely disables access to OneDrive. OneDrive will be hidden from File Explorer and users won’t be allowed to launch it. You won’t be able to access OneDrive at all, not even from within Windows Store apps or use the camera roll upload feature. To undo this change, just head back to here and change the policy to “Not Configured” instead of “Enabled.”
There doesn’t seem to be an associated registry setting you can modify to get the same effect as the group policy setting on Windows 10. The “DisableFileSync” and “DisableFileSyncNGSC” registry settings that worked on Windows 8.1 no longer works on Windows 10.
Not Recommended: What About Uninstalling OneDrive?
There’s another tip going around — a method that uses the OneDrive installer lying in the Windows system folder to uninstall OneDrive from your system. We don’t recommend this option for several reasons. We aren’t sure how to get OneDrive back if you uninstall it like this, short of resetting your Windows 10 PC to its default state. Windows 10 could potentially run the built-in installer again to reenable OneDrive after an update in the future, but the tweaks above will disable it more cleanly.
If you’re really convinced you want to strip OneDrive out of your system — rather than just disabling it cleanly with the above methods — you can open a Command Prompt window as administrator and run the following command to ensure OneDrive isn’t running:
taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe
After you do, run the following command to uninstall OneDrive on a 64-bit edition of Windows 10:
Cortana is one of Windows 10’s most visible new features. Microsoft’s virtual assistant makes the leap from Windows Phone to the desktop, and there’s a lot you can do with it. It isn’t just a voice assistant either — you can also type commands and questions
Open Cortana to see information it thinks you might care about. Cortana provides a lot of passive information, too, even notifying you when you need to leave to make an appointment on time.
Possibly with the exception of coding (value to be discussed at another time), we have progressed well beyond the time when technology (computers) was a separate content area. We have left the computer lab pretty much in the past. Today's students give every appearance of knowing how to use their various devices expertly and most have mastered keyboarding. They move comfortably between Windows and Mac without a hitch. Seemingly intuitively they become proficient with new apps without instruction or even guidance. And they often know how to access some esoteric feature, proudly demonstrating same to the savviest technologist. However, ask a few of them when they last backed up their data or what app they use to protect their devices against viruses or adware and the response will be similar to when they are asked when they last cleaned their room. Lifehacker provides a very basic list of 10 things every computer user should know how to do. Responsible computing is not just about digital citizenship. Maintaining hardware and apps, efficiency of use, safety and security are equally important. Here's the entire blog.
No matter how tech savvy you are, there are certain things every one of us has to deal with when using a computer—and we don’t always deal with them in the most efficient ways. Here are 10 things that everyone can (and should) learn to keep their computer fast, safe, and easy to use.
Here at Lifehacker, we take a lot of the simpler stuff for granted: how to avoid viruses, use keyboard shortcuts, or even keep your data backed up. Even if you’ve mastered all of these tricks (and there’s a good chance you haven’t), you may want to send this along to some of your less computer-savvy friends. After all, the more they know how to do, the less they’ll call you for help. If you’re looking for some more advanced tricks, we’ve got them for you here.
10. Set Up a Simple Backup System
We all know we should back up our computers, but it’s always one of those things that you’ll set up “one day”. Setting up a backup only takes minutes, though, so you can do it right now and forget about it until you need it—and when you do need it, you’ll be glad you set it up. If you’re just backing up to an external drive, you can just use the simple tools built in to your computer,like Windows Backup or Apple’s Time Machine. However, that’ll only keep you safe if your computer fails. If you lose your home in a fire, get all your gear stolen, or experience any other kind of disaster (God forbid), you’ll have lost all those important documents, family photos, and other files forever. So, we recommend using a service like CrashPlan to back up your computer online. That way, it can back up no matter where you are, and that data will be safe no matter what happens to your hardware.
9. Do Everything Faster with Shortcuts
The great thing about computers is that they can do a lot of things much faster than a human. Say you’re looking for a specific word on a web page. Instead of scanning it yourself, all you need to do is press Ctrl+F and type the word you’re looking for. There are mountains of shortcut like this, from pressing Ctrl+S to instantly save the file you’re working on, Ctrl+P to print it out, or Ctrl+T to open a new tab in your web browser. It may seem like more trouble than its worth at first, but after you use a shortcut one or two times, you’ll wonder why you ever did anything with the mouse. Check out our list of six shortcuts everyone should know, as well as our shortcut of the day series for even more tricks.
Understanding routers, modems, and the other things that make up your network can seem daunting, but there are a few basics that can fix most problems that come your way. Does your router constantly need resetting? Make sure it isn’t overheating or clogged with traffic. Is your Wi-Fi speed and range less than ideal? Use one of these tricks to give it a boost. If you experience more serious problems, you can probably fix them yourself too. Check out ourcomplete guide to knowing your network for more info—it’s got everything you need to know, from buying a router to setting up your network and more.
6. Keep Your PC Free of Crap
Ever wonder how that Yahoo toolbar got on your system, or why there’s so much junk installed on your brand new machine? Crapware is a huge problem in the world of Windows, but that doesn’t mean you have to take it lying down. With the right tools and a little know-how, you can avoid that crapware forevermore: just uninstall the stuff that came with your system, and learn the ways companies trick you into installing stuff you don’t want. You’ll keep that system nice and clean, and beat the scammers at their own game.
5. Access Your Home Computer From Anywhere
Ever go out with your laptop and realize you left something important on your computer at home? One way to solve this problem is to use a service like Dropbox, so your files are with you everywhere you go. However, it’s also handy to know how to use your home computer from anywhere. With a simple app like TeamViewer, you can log into your home computer from another machine and use it as if you were sitting right at your desk—whether you just need to grab a quick file or access a program you don’t have elsewhere.
4. Keep Your Computer in Tip-Top Shape with Regular Maintenance
Computer maintenance has gotten really confusing over the years. Between defragging,cleaning up temporary files, and other tasks, it’s almost like trying to maintain a car. Luckily, it’s gotten a lot easier in recent years: you only really need to do one or two things to keep your computer running fast and smooth. Check out our guides to Windows maintenance and Mac maintenance for more info and keep your PC running like new. And if your phone’s feeling a little sluggish, we have guides for iOSand Android, too.
3. Instantly Share a File Between Two Computers
So you’ve got some files you want to give to your friend sitting next to you, but your flash drive has mysteriously gone missing. Well guess what? You don’t need it! It’s very easy to transfer a file between two computers over your wireless (or wired) network, whether it’s between you and a friend or between multiple computers you own. Here are our favorite ways to share files with a nearby computer, but if you want to share them between multiple computers in your house,Windows’ Homegroup feature is a great option. Of course, this is where the aforementionedDropbox app can come in handy, too.
2. Easily Find Your Lost or Stolen Gadgets
You never know when you might misplace your phone, laptop, or other tech, so set up some safeguards now. iPhone users can enable Find My iPhone, and Android users should enable theAndroid Device Manager, which allows you to track your phone if you lose it. Of course, you can always get a more feature-rich app like Prey, which can track nearly any laptop or smartphone that’s gone missing, and even get a photo of who might be using it. If you’re missing a camera, the CameraTrace service can help you find it, too. Of course, the best solution is making sure it doesn’t get stolen in the first place, and making sure all your personal data is locked down. Which brings us to our last tip...
