In districts from Arizona to Indiana, educators are opting out of textbooks altogether, culling from vetted electronic resources and courseware to essentially create their own texts. Online articles, simulations, and audiovisual files, along with lesson plans shared through wikis, can be found on the syllabi for a growing number of secondary classes. This approach, while piecemeal and labor-intensive, makes for materials that are inexpensive (except for the cost of the technology) and easily updated.
Archives: Bookmarks
HBO Schedule: MASTERCLASS 06: FRANK GEHRY
—-What i’ve seen of this is awesome.
Architect Frank Gehry, world-famous for his organic and unconventional designs, works with five young artists to grow their understanding and appreciation of the challenges and opportunities in urban design. Gehry dares James, Cat, Jen, Sheena and Joe to plan a new city. “Hanging out with kids, you realize that there is another generation, and they’re going to make it better,” explains Gehry. “It’s beyond just making your own stuff, making your own mud-pies–you enable some other mud-pies to be made.” As the students work on their project, Gehry reminds them that the structures must be functional first and beautiful second. (TVG) (NA)
Make: Online | The Maker’s Bill of Rights (PDF)
Social networking ‘hits grades’ | Orange UK
—LOOK! A totally useless study designed to scare people funded by a company that offers Internet filtering.
“One in five parents think their children’s school grades are suffering due to the amount of time they spend on social networking websites, a new study has found.
A questionnaire completed by 4,427 adults, found that 20% of parents believe their child’s education is being hampered by the amount of time they spend on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and other other non-educational web pages.”
Why Won’t ‘Reformers’ Listen? – Bridging Differences – Education Week
I worry about the one-sided treatment of education issues, not only in Rhode Island, but in the national media. The corporate reformers seem shocked when anyone questions their narrative. They see no downside to their dogmatic belief in closing schools and firing principals and teachers, nor to their dogmatic faith that higher test scores are the goal of education. They accuse critics of “defending the status quo,” even though it is they who are the status quo, the champions of get-tough accountability. They don’t understand that they might be wrong, that their critics deserve a hearing, and that disagreement is healthy.
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/blueprints/english_blueprints/blueprints_writing5.pdf
Accelerated Reader Quiz
Billionaire’s role in hiring decisions at Florida State University raises questions – St. Petersburg Times
A conservative billionaire who opposes government meddling in business has bought a rare commodity: the right to interfere in faculty hiring at a publicly funded university.
A foundation bankrolled by Libertarian businessman Charles G. Koch has pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University’s economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new program promoting “political economy and free enterprise.”
Vast Public Indifference: A Thought for Grading Day
I am really worried that these students are coming out of this course not only no better off than they were before, but actually worse because they feel that they have confirmed the validity of their prejudices. After all, the primary sources say that white, Christian Americans wanted to help the Cheyenne, so it must be true. These are Harvard undergrads in 2011 who are honest-to-goodness, unironically arguing that it’s a damn good thing that white Americans put Cheyenne children in boarding schools where they could be civilized. And they think that they learned that in my course. It is a disgrace.
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