Archive for the ‘schoolreform’ Category:


Podcast353: Free, Online K-12 Education Options for ALL Oklahoma Students via Epic One on One Charter School

This podcast is an interview with David Chaney of Epic Charter Schools in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on June 25, 2010. In early-June 2010, Oklahoma governor Brad Henry signed Senate Bill 2319 into law which radically changes the groundrules for online, virtual learning in Oklahoma. In this podcast, David discusses the model of virtual learning which

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Over the Pond and Through The Fiber #aha-moment

BACKGROUND OF MY A-HA MOMENT WITH EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY In the spring of 2006, I had a trans-oceanic, international conversation with other educators which fundamentally changed my perceptions about communication and learning. Using the free software program Skype, I joined Canadian educator Darren Kuropatwa (in Winnipeg, Manitoba), Scottish educator Ewan McIntosh (in Edinburgh, Scotland), and U.S.

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Phenomenal Math Curriculum Makeover Video by Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer’s twelve minute talk at TEDxNYED in March 2010 is one of the best videos I’ve seen not only discussing how multimedia can be used effectively by math teachers to bring “real world” problem solving into the classroom, but even more importantly how we as math teachers can fundamentally change our PEDAGOGY to encourage

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What do we do for third tier schools?

Dr. Larry Cuban’s post from June 20, 2010, “On Changing One’s Mind about Schooling” includes some very challenging thoughts about education and education reform. Cuban argues we have three basic “tiers” of schools in the United States: Top-tier schools—about 10 percent of all U.S. schools–such as selective urban high schools in New York, Boston, and

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Podcast351: Leading Schools with Digital Vision in a Bubblesheet World (part 2 of 2)

Part 2 of 2: This podcast is a recording of a presentation by Wesley Fryer on June 16, 2010, in San Antonio, Texas, at the summer administrative leadership conference for Northeast ISD. This was a 2+ hour presentation, so the recordings have been separated into two parts. See the podcast shownotes for links to referenced

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OLPC 2012 Tablet Video and more from San Antonio this week

Yesterday I shared a presentation with administrators in San Antonio, Texas, and was delighted to meet Honor Moorman in person at the event. Honor is a teacher at the International School of the Americas, and students in her 21st Century Global Leadership class last Spring created some fantastic videos as culminating class projects. Pre-service teachers

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Podcast350: Leading Schools with Digital Vision in a Bubblesheet World (part 1 of 2)

Part 1 of 2: This podcast is a recording of a presentation by Wesley Fryer on June 16, 2010, in San Antonio, Texas, at the summer administrative leadership conference for Northeast ISD. This was a 2+ hour presentation, so the recordings have been separated into two parts. See the podcast shownotes for links to referenced

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Public education is not failing, but political spin doctors want you to think so

Blog posts which begin like this one make me ill: As failing socialized education once more is cutting teachers and looking to pour federal tax paid money to save salaries of some of them, why not do something different: cut textbook costs by delivering learning content using mobiles. Roughly speaking, one teacher’s salary of $100,000

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Education can empower us with skills to act upon the world

The purposes of education extend far beyond the narrow “achievement” which is measured on standardized assessments. Mike Rose reminds us of some of the most important purposes of education on pages 36-38 of his wonderful book, “Why School? Reclaiming Education for All of Us.” He writes: Reading and writing gave me skills to create with

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Want to Inspire Creativity? Invite LOTS of Opportunities to CREATE

Without creation, there can be no creativity. If we want to inspire our students to be creative, as teachers we must invite students to CREATE content frequently. Creative sharing should not take place only at the end of the year, or as a culminating project, but as a regular part of learning. The following story

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Podcast349: Crisis in the School: Redesigning the Delivery Model by Steve Wyckoff

This podcast is a recording of a presentation by Steve Wyckoff at the June 2, 2010 iConnect, iLearn Conference in Colby, Kansas. The title of Steve’s session was, “Crisis in the School: Redesigning the Delivery Model.” Steve relates how ESSDACK (The Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas) hosted a summit last April

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NCLB damages US education by narrowing the curriculum

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) continues to harm the formal educational experiences of millions of students and teachers in the United States. In her recent book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” Diane Ravitch explains why. In her chapter titled, “Hijacked!” on page 29, Ravitch writes: Whereas the authors of A

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Jim Askew on Individualized Online Curriculum and Transforming Learning #ok1to1

These are my notes from Jim Askew’s morning presentation at the Crescent Public Schools‘ 1:1 learning conference on 4 June 2010. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. MY ASIDE: THE STORYCHASERS MOBILE LEARNING TEAM BLOG IS A PLACE FOR EDUCATORS IN 1:1 SETTINGS TO SHARE IDEAS. I’ve been blessed to work for 2

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Welcome to Crescent PS: Teaching in a 1:1 Laptop Environment #ok1to1

These are my notes from the opening session at the Crescent Public Schools‘ 1:1 learning conference on 4 June 2010. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. MY ASIDE: THE STORYCHASERS MOBILE LEARNING TEAM BLOG IS A PLACE FOR EDUCATORS IN 1:1 SETTINGS TO SHARE IDEAS. 14 of the 19 Oklahoma schools involved in

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Helping kids connect to their passions and become remarkable: SAVING money shifting to Project Based Learning

These are my notes from Steve Wyckoff’s presentation, “Crisis in the School: Budget Busters” at the iConnect, iLearn Conference in Colby, Kansas on June 2, 2010. The Ustream login in the room didn’t work but I was able to login with a different browser, so I was able to record/archive this session. (embedded below) ESSDACK

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Public Schools Are Not Businesses – Why Educational Sharing Matters

If you have access to a phone and can use it, you can readily publish audio online for FREE as a podcast using iPadio. Your students can as well. This process is called “phonecasting.” Tuesday I recorded a 23 minute phonecast using iPadio on my iPhone, continuing my review of Diane Ravitch’s new book, “The

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Schools must be data informed: NOT data driven

This weekend I finished reading Diane Ravitch’s excellent new book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.” I highly commend this book to anyone interested in the topic of education reform. I agree with much of what Ravitch writes, and made extensive notes as well as annotations in my paper copy of

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Podcast348: Reflections on Technology Classes for PreService Education Teachers (Part 1)

This podcast is a recording of a conversation over skype on May 14, 2010, with Dean Mantz in Sterling, Kansas, Dean Shareski in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, Cyndi Danner-Kuhn in Manhattan, Kansas, and Wesley Fryer in Edmond, Oklahoma. For the past several years, each participant has taught pre-service technology classes for undergraduate college students. In this conversation

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NCLB has killed creative teaching and energetic learning about science (at least before state testing)

Carol Engelmann, in a video interview for the Imagine It! Project, correctly observes our politically-inspired educational culture of high stakes accountability (NCLB) has severely hurt the cause of creative teaching, driven passionate teachers away from the profession, and DISCOURAGED rather than encouraged excitement in many K-12 science classrooms. video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsfree video player Carol

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Who is hosting your state’s Commons-based peer production server for curriculum?

Kent Brooks, the director of technology at Western Oklahoma State College (WOSC) out in Altus, wrote a great post on his Ning last week following an Adobe connect brainstorming session called, “Open Content, Peer Production and Creativity, STEM and School Culture Transformation in Oklahoma.” This built on the ideas in my post, “Let’s build openly

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