קטגוריה: סטנדרטים

As the number of computers increased the goals for what children did with them seemed [to] be lowered. No longer did “computer literacy” mean that every child should have the expertise required to program the computer, but that they would be able to bookmark a web page or identify the mouse in a standardized “tech literacy” test.

The moral of that tale is that the computer lab is a historical accident that need not be preserved in amber.

Don’t be surprised when kids do extraordinary things. Be surprised when adults are surprised. I expect that children can use computers in deeper more thoughtful ways than school traditionally asks of them. Cute may be a subset of “good,” but is a poor substitute.

If students can come use a computer whenever they need to for as long as necessary, they’ll learn more, the computers will be used to greater benefit and the school will take an important step towards learner-centered school reform.

If a kid is breathing, she has probably surpassed the NETs
The ISTE NETs standards are unimaginative and technocentric. Declare that every child has satisfied them and move on.

dictate how political events and figures will be taught to about 4.8 million schoolchildren in Texas and beyond for the next decade.

The standards also will be used by textbook publishers who often develop materials for other states based on those approved in Texas.

While my daughter was in school, I always complained that the teachers weren't using the text books enough. Now, given the religiously-biased texts, I hope they continue their independent curricula development.

The report highlighted the "adverse effects" that often flow from a target-driven school culture and criticised Ofsted (ה-Office for Standards in Education) for taking a narrow, results-based view of learning in schools.

The report did not argue for an end to all external assessment. But it called for a shift toward more within-school, teacher-led assessment. This, it said, would not only save money but also a lot of the teaching time that is lost to exam preparation and administration.

And this is the key point: it is not about dropping school accountability altogether, but about making sure it does not obstruct teaching and learning.

"Hey Mr. Spencer, why do we have the Galileo if we already have common assessments and quizzes and projects with rubrics."
"Great question."
"If the purpose of an assessment is to see if I'm learning, isn't assessment happening every day?"
"Uh  huh."
"So, would they rather spend our time on teaching instead of assessing what they already assessed?"
"Yeah, you would think."

… the 75 Harlem kindergartners were going not only for a glimpse of rural life, but to rack up extra points on standardized tests.

have invented a form of test preparation. The schools haul their students to a farm each year, hoping to expose them to the rural life and lift their scores.

It would be impossible for the information revolution to unfold and NOT have transformative implications for how children can be educated

Mandating portfolios on a system wide or statewide basis may destroy one of their greatest assets: allowing students to reflect on their learning and feel a sense of hope and control. Once standards are defined by an outside authority, teacher-student collaboration is minimized and the importance of students' own goals and learning assessment diminishes.

… if there is no extrinsic motivator or mandate, where is the intrinsic motivation to reflect on learning, especially when there are so many competing priorities in our students' lives? If only we could capture the motivation behind social networks to facilitate reflection on learning! That is the place where students reflect on life, albeit most often with a more social, less academic focus.

heavy with documentation but light on passion

To my utter astonishment, she said it was because it made her feel stupid. After a couple of years of feeling stupid every day, she was ready to do something else.

Science makes me feel stupid too. It's just that I've gotten used to it. So used to it, in fact, that I actively seek out new opportunities to feel stupid. I wouldn't know what to do without that feeling. I even think it's supposed to be this way.

The crucial lesson was that the scope of things I didn't know wasn't merely vast; it was, for all practical purposes, infinite. That realization, instead of being discouraging, was liberating. If our ignorance is infinite, the only possible course of action is to muddle through as best we can.

And it is interesting to note how strongly Schwartz contrasts with the proponents of NCLB and the high stakes testing movement that has swept our country in recent years.

Through the lesson, students engaged in discussions of creditability, validity, timeliness, and search strategies to find and evaluate fantasy football information. The assessment of these instruction sessions showed incoming students successfully identifying evaluation criteria and reporting positive changes in how they viewed research and libraries.

Librarians have the ability to connect these existing skills to academic content in order to help students become successful information literate students.

The student athletes discussed the sources and argued over their conclusions. These discussions could have taken place in any traditional information literacy class and were the true intent of the session itself. The students seemed surprised at the similarities to academic concepts.