Slate Science Launches SlateMath: A Game Changing Math Learning Apps Series

 

Slate Science, an educational technology company offering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education products for tablets, today launched SlateMath, a series of educational apps the company will bring to market during 2013. SlateMath can be downloaded for free in multiple languages and is immediately available in Apple's App Store .

In conjunction with the launch, Slate Science announced the closing of a $1.1 Million angel round of funding led by private investors. The funds will be used for continued product innovation, marketing and operational costs.

Slate Science was founded by an A-team of educators and engineers with more than 100 years of combined experience in science education, instructional software development, and mobile platforms. The company developed a proprietary technology and a field-proven methodology for teaching STEM fields. Rather than oferring frontal videos and drill and skill practice, the company is focusing on crafting constructive learning environments that guide children through a rewarding process of self-discovery and intuitive exploration. The company's proprietary authoring technology enables it to develop and deploy its learning apps in a remarkably efficient and timely manner.

The company's first launched product –  SlateMath K-1 – takes children on a journey of playful explorations that guide them through the process of intuitively acquiring seven kindergarten and first grade math fundamentals: Counting, Writing Digits,Addition, Comparison and Order, Parity, Patterns, and Problem Solving. These topics are learned through a progression of 30 engaging activities, each designed to endow a well-defined mathematical concept, skill, or insight. The SlateMath methodology offers fun and interactive ways to learn math and develop analytic skills, and is driven by the Common Core Mathematics Standards adopted by 45 U.S. states.

TheSlateMath series was conceived to address a global frustration with math learning. The company's breakthrough learning methodologies tap into children's natural and intuitive learning processes, and help them acquire knowledge and competence constructively, using self-guided as well as teacher-guided exploration. "SlateMath has two purposes," said Prof. Shimon Schocken , one of the company's co-founders, "to teach math proper through self-paced and engaging discovery, and to expose children to the ways mathematicians think and reason about the world. We see a tremendous opportunity to use tablet technology and constructive pedagogy to endear math to children, and to help them develop into confident and competent thinkers."

The SlateMath series was designed from the ground up for an environment consisting of tablets, cloud computing, and standardized curricula. The series is based on a huge portfolio of modular, richly-indexed, and recombinant educational apps that Slate Science is now developing. Subsets of the SlateMath portfolio can be assembled to support existing textbooks and learning programs as well as the new wave of emerging digital textbooks. The software also adapts the contents dynamically, to address the learner's revealed strengths and weaknesses in real time.

"SlateMath is a game changer because it offers a new and innovative approach to teach math. The product is based on an experiential context, hands-on learning, and self-discovery, making the best utilization of the tablet's touch interface I've seen thus far in educational apps. This approach allows children to acquire and understand math 'in their bones'. The Slate Science technology and learning methodologies are applicable not only to math, but to many other STEM subjects as well," said Robert Scoble .

About Slate Science

Slate Science builds portfolios of educational apps designed to support standard STEM curricula while allowing students to develop, deeply understand, and experience hands-on conceptual learning. The company's first series of products isSlateMath, intended for the consumer market and aimed to support math instruction according to the Common Core Standards. A school version of SlateMath, intended for classroom use and equipped with a suite of teaching aids, will be released soon. Headquartered in New York, Slate Science has R&D facilities in Israel. The company's mission is to help students, teachers, and schools reach their highest potential using advanced technology and constructive, hands-on pedagogy. For more information please visit www.slatescience.com or follow us on Twitter at @SlateScience.

 

Soon Indian School Teachers to be Trained in USA

This year, a six-month training programme for Indian school teachers will be launched under the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowships programme in the U.S., said Maya Sivakumar, director of United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF).

Talking about ‘Experience America’, a three-day programme organized by the U.S. Consulate General, Sivakumar said that the Indian teachers will get an opportunity to enhance their skills on a variety of academic subjects in the U.S. universities as a part of the programme, as reported by TNN.

Judy Reinke, the U.S. commercial service minister counsellor for commercial affairs, American Embassy informed that the programme has been organized to encourage business ties between Indian and the U.S. companies and to support Indian students to pursue a range of courses in American universities.

Judy further said that "We will help the agricultural sector of India by organizing Pack Expo, an event about packaging technology of agro products at Las Vegas on September 25," as reported by TNN.

It was noted that the programme ‘Experience America’ will have nine U.S. companies and universities presenting their catalogues.

David J Gainer, public affairs officer of the U.S. Consulate General talking of the education sector, said, "Fifteen years ago about 30,000 Indian students were pursuing courses in American Universities, but today there are more than 1 lakh Indian students. Similarly about 4,000 American students are pursing various courses in India," as reported by TNN.

 

Why Facebook CEO wants school kids to learn coding

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates,Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter creator Jack Dorsey are among the tech luminaries appearing in a new video promoting the teaching and learning of computer coding in schools.

Titled "What most schools don't teach," the video released online begins with Zuckerberg, Gates and other tech icons recalling the time they got their start in coding. For some, that was in sixth grade. For others, such as Ruchi Sanghvi,Facebook's first female engineer, that happened in college. Freshman year, first semester, intro to computer science, to be exact.

Dorsey, who also founded and runs the mobile payments startup Square, said in an interview that he didn't grow up being a programmer.

"I wanted to work on ideas. In order to see them grow, I had to learn how to code," Dorsey told The Associated Press. "I think there is a lack of desire, there is a lack of push to teach people how to program and how to code. It's not all that dissimilar to learning a foreign language. It's just a way to instruct a machine on what to do. It empowers people to start a business, to start a project, to really speak to a daily issue that they are having or other people are having."

Running less than six minutes, the video promotes Code.org, a nonprofit foundation created last year to help computer programming education grow.

"The first time I actually had something come up and say `hello world,' and I made a computer do that, that was just astonishing," Gabe Newell, president of video game studio Valve, recalls in the video.

But it's not just tech leaders promoting programming in the video. Chris Bosh, of the Miami Heat basketball team, says about coding: "I know it can be intimidating, a lot of things are intimidating, but, you know, what isn't?"

Code.org was founded by tech entrepreneur Hadi Partovi, an early investor in Facebook, Dropbox and the vacation rental site Airbnb. The nonprofit wants to address an oft-cited problem among technology companies - not enough computer science graduates to fill a growing number of programming jobs. The group laments that many schools don't even offer classes in programming.

"Our policy is literally to hire as many talented engineers as we can find," Zuckerberg says in the video. "The whole limit of the system is just the there just aren't enough people who are trained and have these skills today."


 

Microsoft and STEM Education

An old adage says that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. A Microsoft executive’s recent call for more federal government spending on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education fits this definition to a tee. What’s the real solution to the dismal status of American education, particularly when it comes to the kinds of technical fields necessary for a skilled IT and data center work force?

News Flash: The Education Bubble Will Burst

According to USDebtClock.org, student loan debt in the U.S. is quickly approaching $1 trillion, exceeding even credit-card debt by a substantial margin (some 10%). According to CollegeData.com (“What’s the Price Tag for a College Education?”), “a ‘moderate’ college budget for an in-state public college for the 2011–2012 academic year averaged $21,447. A moderate budget at a private college averaged $42,224.” For a four-year college, that’s anywhere from about $85,000 to $170,000 per student. And in an economy where recent graduates are having an increasingly difficult time finding a job, these numbers are even more dreadful. For some students, particularly those who also incur graduate-school debt, the result could be a lifetime of debt—and a debt that is notoriously difficult to get rid of by other means.

The system has all the makings of a bubble, and one that cannot help but burst. The only question is how soon. The situation for K-12 education is slightly different, but the economics are similar. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (“Policy Basics: Where Do Our State Tax Dollars Go?”), “About one-fourth of state spending on average, or about $260 billion, goes toward public [K-12] education.” State debt—although still dwarfed by the federal debt—resides at around $1 trillion. The difference in K-12 education is that it’s “free”—meaning no one (unless they look) sees the cost by way of taxes. Everybody has access to the system, and everybody pays the taxes whether they use it or not.

The results? PBS (“Math, Science, Reading Scores Show U.S. Schools Slipping Behind”) cites U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan: “The United States came in 23rd or 24th in most subjects [on the PISA standardized tests]. We can quibble, or we can face the brutal truth that we’re being out-educated.”

So, how’s all that spending working out?

Microsoft’s Success

If Microsoft had followed the business model of the state (wantonly throw other people’s money at a problem and hope the problem goes away), it would be far from a household name. It certainly would have no share of the computer OS market. Nevertheless, CIO.com (“Microsoft Calls for $5 Billion Investment in U.S. Education”) reports that Microsoft general counsel and executive vice president Brad Smith has called for “Congress [to] invest $5 billion in the country’s education system—particularly in math, science and technology education—over the next 10 years and pay for it with increased fees on high-skill immigration.” In other words, impose tariffs of a sort to fund more spending into the black hole of U.S. education.

Is this insanity? Well, how far has two centuries of ever-increasing government control of and spending on education brought us?

Microsoft should look to its own model of success (at least idealistically): compete for business, provide a superior product (or, at least, one that people prefer to buy) and engage in voluntary commerce. If it worked for Microsoft, why can’t it work for education? Private education is generally known to be better than public: just look at the actions (not words) of politicians, like President Barack Obama.

At this point, one hears all the howls of how certain children will be left behind: what will poor families do if the government doesn’t control education? Well, how is state-controlled education working for poor families these days? Are the Chicago teachers—who, incidentally, are making on average between about $71,000 and $76,000 annually (and that’s not for a full 12 months of work, like most people must do to earn their salaries)—providing a commensurately high level of education for their students? The recent teachers’ strike was largely a fuss over teacher evaluations: something that wouldn’t even be an issue if teachers were actually doing a good job overall.

So, yes, Microsoft is advocating utter insanity.

What to Do Instead

Instead of calling for charity by proxy, Microsoft could consider implementing an apprenticeship program for young people that focuses on learning real, marketable skills. If the company believes there are returns to be had on investments in education, what is it waiting for? Why use other people’s money? Five billion dollars over 10 years amounts to $500 million per year: why not ask the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation for funding? A private company like Microsoft could implement a stellar apprenticeship (or other style of education) program with that kind of money. Why waste it on an institution—federal and state governments—that are known to be spendthrifts?

For the U.S. to excel in STEM areas, the first task is to get government out of the education business. It is a failure. It’s time to move on. Stop trying to tinker with it. Unfortunately, this is something that won’t happen soon.

Companies in the data center and IT sectors should look beyond traditional schooling if they want skilled employees. With the widespread availability of powerful computers—and the cloud—a dismal state-run education system is no excuse for a lack of talent. Everything one needs to know to be an outstanding data center designer, software programmer, technician or almost anything else is available for free (or at a low cost) on the Internet. Companies should consider how to invest in future employees through their own educational systems, via apprenticeships, mentoring, internships and other means. To be sure, the myriad logistics would need to be worked out, but the alternative is to continue taxing the economy into recession to fund, among other things, a failed education system.

The data center and IT sectors—of all industries—have no excuse to whine about education. They build and (to some extent) govern the ultimate tool of education: the Internet. Microsoft knows the power of putting relatively inexpensive tools into the hands of consumers: how much work is accomplished because Word and Excel, for instance, are available relatively cheaply? And for those who don’t want to pay anything, there’s OpenOffice. And the Internet has innumerable free (and paid) resources to teach people how to use these tools. So why the incessant calls for dumping more money in a system that is inefficient, ineffective and even destructive?

Science, technology, engineering and math are areas that have seen amazing progress over the past century—and even the past decade. Although data centers seem commonplace, they are actually an amazing feat of engineering at a variety of levels, from the silicon that composes microchips up to the interconnects among servers and even surrounding infrastructure that keeps everything running. These advances have come in spite of the current education system, not because of it. It’s time to stop the insanity.

Kids with technology in their bedrooms don't sleep as well, more likely to be obese

"If you want your kids to sleep better and live a healthier lifestyle, get the technology out of the bedroom," says co-author Paul Veugelers, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, in a statement on Monday.

 

Letting your children bask in the glow of a television or computer in their bedrooms at night doesn't benefit their sleep or waistlines. Researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada say that electronic devices in kids' bedrooms are linked with both poor sleep and obesity.

Researchers used data from nearly 3,400 students in fifth grade (10-11 years old) in a survey of their nighttime sleep habits and access to electronic devices. Half of the children had a television, DVD player, or video game console in the bedroom, 21 percent had a computer, and 17 percent had a mobile phone.

Fifty-seven percent of students reported using their phones, watching television, or playing video games after they were supposed to be asleep. Researchers found that students with access to one electronic device were 1.47 times more likely to be overweight than kids with no devices in the bedroom. That increased to 2.57 times for kids with three devices. Additionally, they found that as little as one hour of additional sleep each night decreased the odds of being overweight by 28 percent and obese by 30 percent.

"If you want your kids to sleep better and live a healthier lifestyle, get the technology out of the bedroom," says co-author Paul Veugelers, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, in a statement on Monday.

Co-author Christina Fung adds that children today are not sleeping as much as previous generations, with two-thirds not getting the recommended hours of sleep per night. A good night's sleep has been linked with better academics, fewer mood disorders, and healthier lifestyle habits.
The research was published online in the journal Pediatric Obesity.

Prior research has found that kids with TVs in their rooms watched more TV and were more likely to have sleep problems; also, the more television children watched, and the more violence they were exposed to on television, the more problems they had sleeping. That study was published last June in the journal Pediatrics.

Back to School: 10 Terrific Web Apps for Teachers

 

From keeping track of grades to sharing lesson plans, from helping students collaborate to communicating with parents, teachers now have a host of web-based tools at their disposal to help them stay organized and make their jobs easier.

 

Teachers have one of the most difficult and least appreciated jobs in the world, and most of them spend many unpaid hours after school doing extra work coming up with lesson plans and managing their classrooms. That’s why it is exciting that new tools are making it easier for teachers to manage the administrative tasks — like keeping track of attendance — so they can focus more energy on helping students learn.

 

Here is a collection of ten teacher applications that really make the grade. Do you know of any other applications that can be helpful for teachers? Let us know in the comments.

1. SchoolRack

 

 

SchoolRack is a free application for teachers to create classroom web sites. Using these class portals, teachers can interact with students and parents, post, collect, and grade assignments, communicate via mailing lists and private discussion boards, and send private messages to students.

2. SchoolTool

 

 

SchoolTool is a free web-based tool for school administrators. Unlike the other tools on this list, it isn’t hosted, but instead is a downloadable, open source application written in the Python language. That means to use it, teachers will need some technical knowledge. Though not the prettiest application, it is extremely useful, offering a grade book, attendance tracking, calendar, and contact management features. SchoolTool can even create report cards for each student based on the recorded grades.

 

For a hosted grading tool, check out Engrade, which is one of the most popular online grading apps for teachers. Engrade also offers a built-in attendance tracker and assignment calendar.

3. Curriki

 

 

Curriki is a collaborative project bringing educators together to share curricula with one another. Teachers use the site, which is unsurprisingly wiki-based, to share educator resources such as lesson plans, handouts, templates, and study guides. Though it takes some getting used to, Curriki is a great resource for teachers who need ideas for classroom activities.

4. Edmodo

 

 

Twitter is actually a great tool for use in the classroom, but unfortunately, because it is also a great tool for goofing off many schools have it blocked. Further, because it is a public network, there are serious privacy considerations involved when using Twitter with students. Edmodo, however, is something like Twitter, but designed specifically for use in a classroom setting, which makes it safer, more secure, and have more utility for teachers overall. Edmodo offers microblogging, link and file sharing, inline replies, a class calendar, and assignments and grading functions all in a Twitter-like package built with the classroom in mind.

5. Shmoop

 

 

Shmoop may have a really silly name, but it is actually an incredibly useful tool for educators, especially those working in a liberal arts setting. Shmoop offers study guides for literature, US history, poetry, and civics, as well as biographies of famous people. But what sets Shmoop apart from sites like Sparknotes is that the guides are written with kids in mind. Each guide is written with a down-to-earth, irreverent wittiness full of pop culture references that make the subjects more easy to grasp and more enjoyable for students.

 

Shmoop guides are written by mostly Masters and Ph.D. level college graduates from top Universities (two-thirds from Stanford, UC Berkeley, or Harvard), 91% of whom have taught at the high school or college level. Teachers can develop lesson plans around Shmoop content as a way to help digital age students connect with classic content.

6. Footnote

 

 

Another great content resource for educators is Footnote. Footnote is a collection of over 58 million original historical documents that history teachers can use to make history seem more real. What better way to connect students to something that happened a hundred and fifty years ago than to let them actually explore documents and original sources from that time? Users of Footnote can also annotate documents, to help others better understand them. Why not put students to work annotating historical documents to help them even better connect with history?

Educators will also want to check out Flickr: The Commons, a vast and growing collection of public photography archives from The Library of Congress, The Smithsonian, the Powerhouse Museum, the George Eastman House, Oregon State University, the National Galleries of Scotland, and many more.

7. ClassMarker

 

 

Unfortunately for students, not everything can be fun and games: sometimes teachers must test performance. ClassMarker is a full-featured online test and quiz maker, that lets teachers create quizzes with a mix of multiple choice, true or false, short answer, fill in the blank, and essay questions. Test questions can be randomized and results can be given to students instantly and emailed to professors.

8. Bookgoo

 

 

Bookgoo is kind of like document sharing site Scribd, but with the additional ability of users to mark up and annotate uploaded documents. With better privacy controls, Bookgoo would be a great tool for teachers to offer feedback to students on any sort of document — however, because of its lack of robust privacy features, take care when using Bookgoo with students. (That’s not to say that you can’t use Bookgoo — just be careful.)

For a more feature-filled solution, though at a higher cost, check out Backboard.

9. DOC Cop

 

 

While the web may have made it easier for students to copy other people’s writing, it also has made it easier for teachers to test student work against a corpus of preexisting material to catch plagiarizers.

 

One way to do that is to search for suspicious sentences in Google and do the detective work yourself. Another way to go about testing for plagiarism is to use a free web-based tool like DOC Cop, which does the heavy lifting for you and emails you a report indicating how much of the document may have been copied and where the copied lines may have originated.

 

Also check out Plagiarism Detect and WriteCheck for more robust detection.

10. TeacherTube

 

TeacherTube started out as YouTube for teachers, with the idea that video was a great resource for use in the classroom but YouTube was a little hard to sift through to find the best educational content. However, the site now also includes document, photo, and audio sharing in addition to video. For educators, TeacherTube is a great resource for finding educational videos for use in the classroom, or lesson plan ideas and tutorials from other teachers.

 

 

Middle school using cloud computing for down-to-earth education

Jessica Macias missed a day of school recently due to illness but she didn't miss her social studies class.

Macias, a Hobart Middle School eighth-grader, was able to log into class from home using Google Apps, an online document system that allows people to use it just by logging on, much like the Web-based email services Hotmail and Gmail.

Called cloud computing, data is stored on servers at a remote location rather than in their laptops. It's also interactive, allowing teachers to post homework assignments and other information online for students.

The School City of Hobart is using the latest technology, with each student using a computer in the classroom and classrooms using social media like Facebook and Twitter. Several elementary and secondary teachers in the school district are using Google Apps and social media in their classrooms.

Macias said her teacher, Matt Whiteman, puts the assignment and agenda online and students can view it any time. She said when she logged in to the system, she was able to view the presentation like a slide show.

"I could see the other students using the system," she said. "It's really nice the way it works. I was able to stay current with my class."

Hobart Superintendent Peggy Buffington said Google Apps has provided an interactive platform for students with their peers and teachers to learn in real time with instant feedback.

"Students can challenge one another critically with information and facts the moment it shows up in a presentation they are collaboratively working on with each other," she said. "Besides the academic component, the digital citizenship side of this open source product can be used as a tool to show students how to engage in healthy debate and dialogue using media tools respectfully."

Whiteman said technology is an integral part of life, and students need to be able to use computers and other devices because that's what they will see in college and on their jobs.

"This generation needs to be excited about technology and what it can do," he said.

Whiteman said his students also will design Web pages this year to create an online "portfolio" to document their progress during the year. Students also will blog. Whiteman said he'll post a question for students, requiring them to provide more than a yes or no answer in their blog. The blog will give students an opportunity to "debate" questions and improve their critical thinking skills.

Eighth-graders Madeleine Leonard and Jovanni Olavarria like the ability to use laptops in class. They also have computers at home.

"It makes it easy," Olavarria said. "It's faster and much better to do work this way than having to write everything out."

Whiteman garnered a modicum of local fame last January when his question during the Republican presidential debate in North Carolina was broadcast live on national television. He tweeted a question about whether the candidates believed the federal No Child Left Behind law was a success.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich responded the law was a failure. "I think it has led teachers to be forced into a bureaucratic system of teaching to the test," Gingrich said.
 

Northern Ireland education turns to the cloud

 

One of the largest cloud education projects in the UK is in Northern Ireland, where monthly billing has smoothed the path to acceptance

It’s just ten years since Apple launched the iPod (and unveiled iTunes), creating a DNA code for the foundation for the iPhone and iPad, devices that are having a significant effect on all manner of established IT infrastructure.

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the areas where this revolution in devices is being most keenly felt is education. Ten years ago, few students would have owned a personal computing device of any type but now a significant proportion own a smartphone, tablet or laptop.

 

The bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon is often discussed as a means of accommodating users at a corporate level, some times in terms of matching the expectations of graduates joining the workforce accustomed to using their own devices. But this tends to overlook the point that those graduates were once students and increasingly students are bringing their own devices into school expecting to be able to use them for their studies.

 

This creates similar types of pressures for schools as those faced by the workplaces. In addition to enabling access from personal devices, they are faced with the requirement to provide networks and infrastructure with strong connectivity and security that support media-rich content, document creation, video editing, collaboration, communication, email and messaging. These are all activities that students are accustomed to in their life outside school and are beginning to expect from their school environment as well.

 

One way to make this happen is by using the cloud. That’s the approach being adopted by C2k, the organisation established to help schools in Northern Ireland get the best for teaching and learning from education technology.

 

One of the largest and most comprehensive educational ICT initiatives in the UK, C2k provides schools in Northern Ireland with a comprehensive managed ICT service. The service includes a LAN in each school with access to a Northern Ireland WAN, administration and management systems for schools, access to the Learning NI managed learning environment (including filtered access to the internet and e-mail), the Virtual Classroom secure videoconferencing system and full service support.

 

The contracts for the managed service were previously split across a number of lots provided by different suppliers and when those contracts expired in 2009, C2k extended them for a further period while it set about the procurement process for a single education network managed by a sole provider.

 

The five-year £170m contract, awarded to Northgate Managed Services (NMS), is designed to give students and teachers increased access to learning resources via a cloud-based network that allows them to use mobile devices, such as tablets, laptops and smartphones, for their work.

 

The Education Network Northern Ireland cloud-based network, which C2k claims is Europe’s first education cloud, will also centralise education materials for 1,200 secondary and primary schools and 350,000 teachers and students in Northern Ireland, making it the largest project of its kind in Europe.

 

NMS has taken responsibility for all aspects of the service, including the WAN and LANs, while connectivity to the cloud will be delivered by Eircom. NMS is using VCE’s Vblock Systems that converge Cisco’s networking, EMC’s storage and security and VMware’s vSphere virtualisation software for the private cloud infrastructure.

 

Commenting on the network, Andy Ross, chief executive at NMS, says it has "built a very modern, very flexible hybrid solution that takes advantage of private cloud and public cloud to create a big hybrid cloud. We’re providing something that’s platform independent, operating system independent, browser independent and device independent." Having a single education network means NMS can provide schools across Northern Ireland with “a standard service using a standard interface and at a standard price."

 

Cloud-based content, including a personal learning environment for students, a learning management system, collaboration and communication tools and a learning content management system, is provided via the Pearson Fronter virtual learning environment on a SaaS basis.

 

Other public cloud services available to students include Office 365 and Google Apps. Pupils and teachers have a single sign on to access applications, educational resources and toolsets, via Northgate’s My-School portal, backed up by Novell Identity Manager.

 

Stuart Gunning, regional director at NMS, says the portal enables personalisation for pupils using school IT equipment, giving them access to a chosen text editor, for example, whether it’s installed on the machine they’re using or not. They will also be able to use their own personal device because once they have signed on to My-School the machine is part of the network with the same level of security and access to schools-based content.

 

The system can be personalised or customised for whether the user is a pupil in primary or secondary school, a teacher or parent or someone with special needs. Personalisation can follow the individual wherever they log on with whatever device they happen to be using.

 

One significant area of concern was around the use of Web 2 and collaboration tools. Gunning says having “any time anywhere” access can create its own teaching issues. For example, instances of cyber-bullying via instant messaging or SMS. With My-School, these messages can be trapped and something can be done to address the problem.

 

The nature of Northern Ireland’s society and the unique demographic there places a very strong emphasis on ensuring there is no inequality of provision to schools, down to the smallest rural primary school. Gunning estimates there are around 35-70 "hard to reach" schools where it has been especially difficult to install broadband connections and alternatives, such as microwave or satellite, have been deployed instead.

 

The service provides C2k and the schools with more predictable budgeting because they pay a monthly charge that can never be above an agreed maximum. “They know exactly what the maximum monthly charge is for the next five years,” Gunning says. And if a school doesn’t receive the service for a certain period of time, NMS will not receive payment from the affected school for that month.

 

According to Gunning, the New Education Network should enable pupils to complete every task they are required to achieve to meet the Northern Ireland national curriculum using video editing, document creation, communication, research and collaboration. "There shouldn’t be a limitation to it," he claims. "If there is, it’s because we haven’t thought about it yet."

 

With the official launch of My-School for post-primary schools taking place in September, one thing pupils returning from their summer break to Northern Ireland’s secondary schools shouldn’t be stuck for is somewhere to compose their "what I did in my summer holiday” essays.

Public Schools Adopt Microsoft IT Training Program

The Microsoft IT Academy program, meant to prepare students for a career in the growing IT industry, is now being implemented in more than 13,000 locations in 160 countries, according to Microsoft.

The program is designed to integrate into new or existing curricula for all ages and learning needs so that students can become better prepared to compete in today’s technological workplace.

“Students will be able to graduate high school with industry credentials that are globally recognized in the business world.” —Cameron Evans, Chief Technology Officer for U.S. Education, Microsoft

 

A Microsoft Certification is one of the best endorsements a student can have going into a career in IT, according to Microsoft, making certified students more employable.

 

The program provides complementary resources and training for educators and staff, so teachers can further develop their own technological skill sets. The complimentary resources provided by Microsoft save time and money that would otherwise need to be spent seeking out this training, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft IT Academy includes lesson plans, Office software licenses, DreamSpark developer tools, E-Reference online libraries, vouchers to pay for IT certification exams, hosted communication and collaboration, and professional training for teachers. It also includes marketing materials and the right to use the Microsoft logo.

North Carolina was the first state to adopt the program in 2010, and now has Microsoft IT Academy in each of its 628 high schools. North Carolina educators insisted that the program must be equally accessible to all students.

“So whether North Carolina students are in one of the smallest, most remote high schools or in one of the larger urban high schools, every student will have the same opportunities to benefit from this program and become Microsoft trained and certified,” according to Claudine O’Leary, Global Business Development manager for Microsoft Learning, in a statement on the Microsoft website.

Georgia was the sixth state to broadly adopt the program. The Georgia state superintendent, Dr. John Barge, visited Fayette County High School in a rural area south of Atlanta on Sept. 5 to announce the expansion.

The Georgia Department of Education is working with Microsoft to offer classes to high school students that can lead them to formal technical certification. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, students in a few school districts were already able to take the courses, but other districts could not afford the program. The state picked up the bill, paying $600,000 to bring Microsoft IT Academy to every public high school.

“We are committed to giving Georgia students the skills they need to be ready for whatever they want to do after high school, whether it be college or a career,” said Barge in a press release. “We want to produce a technology-savvy workforce by ensuring access to these resources in every school across the state.”

By Sept. 6, nearly 200 of Georgia’s high schools had expressed a wish to join the program, according to an announcement from the state department of education. All 463 public high schools and all 460,000 public high school students in Georgia will have the chance to participate.

Starting in 2013, Georgia schools will offer Career Pathways, in which students will choose a career area while in school and take classes tailored to their intended professions. Microsoft IT Academy will be part of that initiative.

“The IT Academy will help build a pipeline of innovators in Georgia as the program helps students gain interest in STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering, and math—and spur ideas for how they can be applied in the real world,” said Cameron Evans, Chief Technology Officer for U.S. Education, Microsoft, in a press release. “Students will be able to graduate high school with industry credentials that are globally recognized in the business world.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 77 percent of jobs will require IT skills by the end of this decade. Today, more than half of all jobs require the skills.

It's Time to Re-Think the U.S. Education System

by Tammy Erickson

Children today, those born after 1995, are seeing a world that looks substantively different to them than the world did to members of Generation Y during their formative years. In an earlier post, I discussed how the global financial crisis and mobile technology have catalyzed the formation of a new generation. Because this new cohort is concerned about sustainability and living within finite limits, I call them the Re-Generation.
 

Clearly the experiences these Re-Gens are having in school are also influencing the ideas they're forming. And, although there are some encouraging signs of change, several major challenges stand out from my ongoing discussions with today's 11-13 year olds.

 

A disconnect between the way school works and how they function outside school. In some ways, traditional schools operate in ways that are foreign to the world in which today's students live. They inhabit a technology-based world of multi-media, addictive games, and mobile access, of asynchronous activities and anywhere, anytime capabilities. Schools are very different. For example, 13 to 15-year-olds in my research thus far average 50 texts a day with peers and parents, but most are required to communicate with teachers via email or in-person. I recently had an animated discussion with a group of academics regarding the desirability of changing their traditional approaches. Many argued that they were preparing the kids for the real world — limiting the Re-Gens' use of "kids'" technology, teaching them to communicate the way adults do. I understand their perspective, but frankly find it short-sighted. We are not preparing these kids for the world as it operates today.

 

Boredom with the teacher-centered learning process. The kids I've interviewed all say that they wish their classes were more entertaining, interesting and fun. They are living in the most stimulating period in the history of the earth — besieged with information that they multi-process through a wide variety of technologies. But most schools require them to put that all away and ask them to focus on one, often-not-that-engaging speaker. Then they penalize them for getting distracted. An average of 12% of all children in the U.S. between 3 and 17 each year are taken to ambulatory care visits (to physician offices, hospital outpatient and emergency departments) with attention deficit disorder as primary diagnosis.

 

Shifting sources of authority. Kids have figured out that the adults in their world — whether teachers or parents — are not necessarily the most reliable source of knowledge. Adults can be wrong — or at least warrant double checking. Parents have told me that even very young children will ask a question, listen to the answer, then suggest that they Google it "just to be sure." Technology leads to a new role for teachers (and parents): that of a learning facilitator and coach, rather than of an authoritative source of information.

 

Growing interest in pragmatic, job-oriented skills. Re-Gens are grounded and focused. The economy is one of their greatest concerns. Most that I've interviewed express an interest in learning more that has to do with "real life" — business, entrepreneurship, how to get a job, computer science, mechanics, robotics, electronics. Many are skeptical of the promise that a good job awaits if you just work hard and do well. They want to make sure they're learning the right stuff now.

 

Unease regarding global standing. Even the youngest students in my research are aware they will face competition from individuals educated in other countries. It's a legitimate concern for those in the U.S. where 15-year-olds are outperformed by their peers in many other nations. U.S. students rank 23rd in math (just above the international average score), 17th in reading, and 32nd in science (well below the international average score).

Several years ago I heard the noted economist Lester Thurow ask an audience to name the greatest invention in U.S. history. Hum. . . The light bulb? Telegraph? Cotton gin? Polio vaccine? Frozen food? Sliced bread?

None of these. Thurow argued that the most significant invention in U.S. history was the public education system established in the early days of the industrial revolution. When U.S. textile owners recognized the need for an educated workforce and forced through legislation requiring young people to attend school, the U.S. created, he argues, its single greatest asset. Education that was paid for the by taxation, compulsory to everyone, and free at the point of delivery, was a revolutionary idea.

 

 

From his perspective as an economist, Thurow argues that this unique educational system produced a workforce that was perfectly matched — in both skills and behavior — to the burgeoning needs of the new industrial economy. Students emerging from this system had both the right knowledge (reading, math) to perform the industrial jobs and the right behaviors (punctuality, focus on specific linear tasks) to form an efficient industrial workforce.

Thus our current approach to education was designed for a different age. It was modeled both on the interests of industrialization and in the image of it: specialization into separate subjects, standardized curricula, conformity, batch processing — by age group. The system was designed to leverage a "lock step" approach over set periods of time and using broadcast delivery methods to prepare students effectively for known jobs.

 

 

The model worked well for 100 years because it matched between the needs of employers. But, as we all know, most of the jobs of tomorrow will not be industrial jobs. Even those in the manufacturing sector will require a knowledge-based set of skills and behaviors. The gap between the output of our educational system and the job demands of the current century is enormous — and growing wider. And the kids intuitively recognize the gap. They're asking for a change.

Happily, progressive organizations are responding to the push from the Re-Generation: for example, by enhancing the learning experience through the integration of technology, "flipping the classroom" so lectures are recorded for the student to watch at home while "school" operates as a sort of "base camp" or design hub for learning, grouping students by what they know not by age, or providing credit for demonstrated life skills through an innovative process we call "badging."

What are your kids learning at school? What programs do you admire?

 

Is technology harming your child's eyes?

While technology is revolutionizing the classroom, health experts warn computers, smartboards and tablets could lead to eye strain and fatigue.

Thirteen-year-old Casey Connelly has firsthand experience with this issue, complaining of tired eyes as her school moves increasingly toward new technology versus old-school utensils like pencil and paper.

“We use computers a lot for typing, and we are getting iPads in the eighth grade, and that will hold our text books, so we'll be doing a lot of work on those,” Casey said.

Casey’s condition, known as computer vision syndrome, consists of a whole host of symptoms related to computer use – including eye strain, blurred vision, headaches, loss of focus, loss of attention, neck pain and double vision, according to Dr. Andrea Thau of the American Optometric Association.

“When we look at a computer screen, it presents a unique visual demand on the eyes because they are looking at something up close and not in 3-D,” Thau told FoxNews.com. “It's flat and it's glowing, and it tricks the eye into thinking something is closer than it is… it often sets up an imbalance between eye coordination and focusing.”

To prevent vision problems, Thau recommends a few easy steps, such as taking a 20-second break every 20 minutes and keeping the computer screen four to five inches below eye level.
“Don't forget to blink,” Thau added. “People stare when they are looking at computers, and blinking is really important to restore the tear film.”

Most importantly, she said every child should have a comprehensive eye exam at the beginning of the school year.


 

Teacher Evaluation System (TES)

 

Cincinnati Public Schools, Teacher Evaluation System (TES) has been nationally recognized as a leading model for enhancing teacher professionalism and supporting higher student performance. The district continues to enhance the program, maintaining its rigor while strengthening professional development and increasing overall efficiency.

 

Cincinnati Public Schools developed an evaluation system designed to ensure a high quality teaching staff for every student and every school.

A lead teacher models effective teaching methods.

All teachers participate in a Comprehensive Evaluation at defined intervals - the first year as a new hire, the fourth year, then every five years after that point. The Comprehensive Evaluation consists of an orientation meeting to learn about the evaluation process, a readiness conference with the evaluator to share details about the teaching assignment, followed by at least four classroom observations.

 

An Annual Assessment, one classroom observation conducted by the teacher's administrator, occurs during those years a teacher is not scheduled for a Comprehensive Evaluation.

 

The Tool

 

The district's Teacher Evaluation System (TES) was developed based on the framework prescribed by Charlotte Danielson in her book "Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching." This framework divides skills and responsibilities into four domains: Planning and Preparing for Student Learning, Creating an Environment for Student Learning, Teaching for Student Learning, and Professionalism.

 

Good teaching is further defined within each domain by a set of standards. Sixteen standards describing quality teaching serve as the foundation of the Comprehensive Evaluation. These standards articulate the skills and responsibilities integral to good teaching and establish clear expectations for performance and professional development in the Cincinnati Public Schools.

 

Teaching performance for each standard is described by a rubric (scoring guide). These standards and rubrics also have been adapted for specialists in the field (librarians, counselors, social workers, school psychologists, etc.).

Help & Support

 

The district and the teachers' union recognized that just evaluating teachers was not enough. Instead it was important to improve the quality of teaching and help teachers refine their teaching skills. As a result, the Peer Assistance and Evaluation Program (PAEP) was developed to help new hires, as well as experienced teachers with instructional deficiencies.

 

In addition, it was recognized that many quality experienced teachers were leaving the profession. As a result, the Career-In-Teaching Program was developed to provide incentives to attract and retain quality teachers in the profession, to improve and encourage teachers' professional growth opportunities, and to give teachers broader roles and responsibilities that improve student achievement and provide better schools for children and teachers.

 

Peer Assistance and Evaluation Program (PAEP)

 

The Peer Assistance and Evaluation Program has two major roles. First, through its Apprentice Component, it assists teachers in their first year in the Cincinnati Public Schools by helping them refine their teaching skills and orienting them to the district, including its goals, curriculum and structure. Through this component, each teacher is evaluated and assisted by a consulting teacher.

 

The Peer Review Panel participates in a training session.

Second, through the Intervention Component, the program assists experienced teachers who exhibit serious instructional deficiencies. When a teacher's principal has concerns about his/her performance, or when a teacher has not met the expected performance standards, the teacher can be referred for intervention. A joint panel of teachers and administrators reviews the referrals and assigns consulting teachers to work with those teachers to improve their instructional skills and to improve the teachers' levels of performance. In cases where improvement does not occur, the panel may recommend a second year of intervention or the non-renewal of a teacher's contract.

 

Career-In-Teaching

 

The Career-In-Teaching program identifies five teaching levels, based on a teacher's evaluation scores. Teachers work toward achieving lead teacher status, which in turn can lead to broader roles and responsibilities, as well as a stipend.

 

Level One, ApprenticeAn apprentice is a teacher without previous teaching experience. This level prepares teachers to pursue a career in teaching.

 

Level Two, Novice
A novice is a teacher who has met licensure requirements and is working to develop the skills required for a career in teaching.

 

Level Three, Career
A career teacher has demonstrated the skills needed to have a career in teaching.

 

Level Four, Advanced
An advanced teacher is continuing to master the art of teaching, demonstrating a distinguished level of teaching.

 

Level Five, Accomplished
An accomplished teacher is a teacher who has demonstrated outstanding teaching.

 

Lead Teacher

A lead teacher helps another teacher improve her skills.

The primary and most important role of a lead teacher is to support quality instruction. In addition to receiving advanced and/or accomplished scores, a lead teacher must demonstrate leadership in his/her profession, effective communication skills, a consistent pattern of professional growth, cooperation and collaboration, and commitment to teaching as a career. Teachers may apply to be a lead teacher by going through a three-phase application process. A joint board/union panel grants lead teacher status. Once a teacher is certified as a lead teacher, he/she may apply for lead teacher positions throughout the district. Lead teachers serve at both the school and district level in various roles (consulting teachers, teacher evaluators, curriculum specialists, subject leaders, team leaders and program facilitators, etc.).