Phil's+Spam

=Phil Bossert shared list of articles, links and other topical and interesting resources that support our Schools of the Future Inititiative=

From July 3, 2012

**//Dr. Yong Zhao's Keynote at ISTE 2012//** Mark Hines said that this talk "blew the doors off of the auditorium" at ISTE, and after listening to it, I can see how. This is a very provocative view of education in America (and the world), suggesting that we are all working very hard at doing just the wrong things. It is 50 minutes long, but definitely worth watching. Since the YouTube video does not show the slides he is referring to, you will have to call those up in a separate window and work through them as Dr. Zhao speaks. Video: __ [|http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lFIkkmaBD9A#!] __ Slides: []

**//Salman Kahn on "Big Thinkers" and Liberating Creativity in the Classroom//** Kahn Academy is expanding out in many directions. With funding from the Gates Foundation, it is building out a project-based learning environment to go along with its 2,000+ videos; and with help from MIT graduate students, it is expanding the number and range of videos available – see attached article. The Edutopia page where the video interview plays also has 5 additional links to other Kahn Academy related resources that may interest you. Video: []

I have attached two articles on virtual learning – one from //The Journal// ("Virtual Schools Come Under Scrutiny") which discusses the large number of issues that are being raised across the nation as a result of the rapid expansion of online learning, and a second one from the //NY Times// ("Come the Revolution") which discusses the implications of an experiment by a Stanford University professor who allowed enrollment in his regular course on machine learning to expand from 400 students to 100,000 students during one term. Reading both provides a balance of insight on the growing importance of online learning.
 * //Two Views of Virtual Learning//**

//**Technology Driving a Shift in Teaching Strategies**// A recent article in //The Journal// - "Technology Driving Widespread Shift in Teaching Models" - provides some interesting data on what both students and teachers are saying about how "education is happening" in schools. Although teachers are changing their ways in the classroom, most students don't think it is happening fast enough.

In this short TED Talk, Ayah Bdeir introduces a set of "electronic building blocks" that beep and blink as the let young students create their own projects and teach themselves about how things relate. Video: []
 * //Getting Started with Robotics//**

A documentary film - "Miss Representation" - created as an educational resource was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival as well. It is available in DVD format for purchase or rent by schools that are interested in creating a discussion of this issue in their community. Link: [|http://www.missrepresentation.org]/
 * //Misrepresentation of Women in the Media//**

Why is the job market in the US growing so slowly when Wall Street is booming and manufacturing seems to be coming back? This //MIT Technology Review// article – see attached - argues that many of the jobs lost during the recession are never coming back because they have been taken over by machines, and that in general machines are taking over jobs faster than info tech is creating new ones. This has implications for what students need to learn in order to be employed in the future.
 * //The Current Tectonic Shift in Employment//**

From January 25, 2012

**//Edutopia News for Jan. 25, 2012 - []//** This week's Edutopia Newsletter has great resources on global learning, including several on examples of learning assessments from foreign countries, and a link to download Edutopia's recent resource guide: //Ten Tips for Assessing Project Based Learning.// **//Interactive Algebra on the iPad -//** **//[]//**  This CNN-Wired story reports on the significant increase in performance results when students were allowed to study Algebra using a new interactive math program designed specifically for the iPad. The iPad students scored on average 20% higher on tests than students studying the exact same materials using a textbook. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial;">**//Wolfram Alpha Interactive Math Resource - []//** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial;">Wolfram Research – [|www.worlfram.com] – developers of the //Mathematica// software and the amazing WolframAlpha computational knowledge engine – [|www.wolframalpha.com] – have just released the first installment of their free interactive K-12 mathematics curriculum – [|www.education.wolfram.com] – that will eventually cover all areas of math. The current site is still in beta and has resources for algebra and calculus, and it currently only works on desktop and laptop computers (no iPad version at present). It looks to be a pretty powerful resource at a very good price: $0.00. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">**Problem-Based Learning in K-12 Education: Is It Effective & How Does It Achieve It's Effects? - Attached** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">Branden Hazlet, team leader for the Maui Prep project, discovered this great article assessing PBL with groups and individuals as compared to standard instructional practices. Definitely worth a read. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">**//The Art of the Question and of Letting Go: Skills for the 21st Century - Attached//** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">This short essay from the blog, //Life in the Renaissance//, poses some very interesting ideas about the art of asking questions and the need to let go of past "truths" now and then. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">**//The Coalition for Kid-Friendly Schools - []//** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">This is a blog brought to my attention by JoAnn Jacobs, who heads up the SOTF project at Hongwanjin Mission School. I have followed it for several weeks now and it has some interesting discussions on student-centered learning. <span style="display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">**//The Flipped Classroom: An Infographic Explanation -//** <span style="display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">**//[]//** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">JoAnn also found this excellent graphical explanation of the flipped classroom, in case any of you are trying to explain it to parents and confused colleagues. One of the teachers who saw this immediately turned it into a Prezi - [] (see the comments at the end of the infographic in the blog) - in case you want to have it in slide show format :-) <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">**//Quotes from Famous People on Education – Attached//** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">And lastly, Raleigh Werberger at Mid-Pacific Institute came across this great collection of comments on education by a wide range of famous people in the education blog at //Psychology Today//. After reading them all, you will wonder why you are in this profession :-) <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">From Dec 12, 2011 <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">**//Well, Duh! - Ten Obvious Truths That We Should Not Be Ignoring//** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">Alfie Kohn wonders why schools keep teaching students the same old way when almost all educators know it doesn't work. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">**//When An Adult Took Standardized Tests Forced on Kids//** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">A school board member who is a well-educated, successful businessman takes several high-stakes standardized tests to see what they tell him about himself, and he finds that the tests tell him that he should not have gone to college, will not be successful and doesn't know very much. He asks who is accountable for the creation of these "unrealistic" tests and wonders what damage they may be doing to our children. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">**//Kahn Academy Blends Its Approach//** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">The creator of Kahn Academy is piloting a new experiment to create a blended learning curriculum for schools. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">**//What's Better: Oxford's Depth vs. Yale's Breadth?//** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">A student who has studied at both Yale and Oxford compares the approach to learning at each university and evaluates - with a bit of humor - the benefits and drawbacks of each. (Note on relevance: Typically, standards based learning is mostly about breadth - "covering the material" – while project based learning is more about depth and relevance.) <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">**//Assessing Creativity//** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">The findings and insights of this 2002 research report are worth considering, especially in light of the currently emerging effort to merge STEM activities with the Arts to create a new acronym - STEAM – and to improve innovation in science and technology. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Geneva,sans-serif;">