How To Persuade School Boards To Open the Net

Suppose you are in the following situation:

You publish a blog, you have numerous feeds in Google Reader, you participate in professional wikis, you subscribe to podcasts in iTunes, you follow hundreds of educators in Twitter, and you realize that you have learned more from these tools than you did in your undergraduate, graduate, and post graduate programs combined, and in a shorter period of time. In other words, you are leveraging not only information but time.

You see how your students could benefit too. You, of course, realize that your students need to conduct themselves appropriately and learn strategies to protect themselves from the cyberbullies.

But you teach in a school district that only uses web-based technology for management purposes - gradebooks, student databases, and the like. The district has outsourced their responsibility of filtering to an non-educational company to restrict the flow of information that comes in and goes out of the school network.

HOW DO YOU CONVINCE THE POWERS THAT BE, THAT THEY ARE VIOLATING THE RIGHTS OF THEIR STUDENTS?

I can't believe it has taken me over 5 years to come back to the basics of persuasion. Use their own vocabulary against them. It is a fundamental strategy in persuasion.

For instance, if you went to your school board as asked them if it would be permissible to have an expert guest speaker in an area which directly addresses your standards, you would likely be given permission and encouragement.

How about stating that you believe your students' opportunities are being limited, and you would like to move your students to their individually "least restrictive environment" that would allow them to be with their peers in a more "normal" setting? Would a board member publicly denounce such a proposal? I don't think they would unless they were ready to address lawsuits and be voted out of office.

But, isn't this what is being done systematically around the United States? If I cannot use Skype, because it is blocked by the techocracy, then I am unable to have a true expert from India speak to my class. If my students cannot have access to blogging tools, Twitter, wikis, cell phones, and other tools of the 21st century, I am teaching in a "self-contained" highly restrictive environment, and my students are being denied their rights to a quality education that will prepare them with tools they need to be "contributing members of society."

I'll be working on this even more. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Posted via email from rrmurry's posterous

Don't Make it Difficult; Others Will Do That For You

Okay, I borrowed this video from a very recent Library Garden post.

But this is how I feel when I hear people tell others how they should teach. "Experts" ask only question to which they already know the scripted answer in order to get the listener to agree with them. Then, when the audience asks a relevant question, the stock answer, "Well, you know, you're doing most of this already. This will just help you organize your work in such a way that it will become easier for you in the long run. This gives it a framework in which we can all work. It's great, and research shows...blah, blah, blah."

As my college professor used to remind us to ask, "Whose research was it? When was it conducted? What prompted the research in the first place."

Then we fix things that aren't broken, and break things that work.

Teaching: It's not rocket science; it's brain surgery.
[One of my all time favorite lines from The Simpsons]



If you are blocked at school...here's the website for later
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU9YeOQm3Y0

---------------
Note:Publications of professor-marvel.com or associated works (unless specifically labeled with another copyright notice) are licensed under a Creative Commons License Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
The views expressed here are my own and reflect only my opinion.
---------------

Sticklers

Teacher's Sex-Ed answers rile parents.

Truth is stranger than...reality.

Thanks to @courosa for the Tweet.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Sticklers

Click comic for larger view.

Sheryl asked a great question on Twitter this evening. I truly hope her conversation goes well tomorrow. Here was her question and purpose for asking Twitterers.

Speaking to 80 superintendents tomorrow that want to know-- what should a 21st C edc leader know and be able to do to lead effectively today.

What would you tell them? Resources? Related posts? What is important for today's superintendent to know? Want to show Twitter grp think

There are so many things that came to mind, but I had to - I just had to - bring something up. It is an opportunity to demonstrate how void NCLB is. Really. If all our kids need to really know is how to read and do math, then why isn't that enough for today's adults? We brainwash our kids into believing that reading and math are the end-all, be-all to a successful life. If we really believed this, then it would be good enough for us too, right? As a matter of fact, if we say we want better for our kids than we do for ourselves, the reading and math is MORE than we need.

It just isn't logical. Sheryl, give the Superintendents everything you've got. You can speak from your overflow of knowledge and practice, and give them more than they can handle. All the best.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Sticklers

//Click the strip for a bigger view
//Funny, my school's outsourced filterer, 8e6, now blocks BitStrips
//and I was thinking about pulling back for fear someone might see my stuff

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Sticklers

[You may have to click the picture to see the full size for easier reading.]

Again, educational "leaders" demonstrate that those who can't teach, administrate.

Read the NYTimes article here.
Read Chris Lehman's take, Reasonable Actions for Unreasonable Times.

I direct you to Chris's post because the one I wrote, I did not publish for fear of getting in trouble. I've just about had it with this NCLB and the way educational politicians are maintaining (and extending) the permanent underclass and stiffles learning.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Sticklers

Based on the Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) results for Math and Social Studies.

Read the Article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Please read the entire article. From the article:

Cox was puzzled by the drastic drop in social studies, calling it "cause for concern." Last year, about 83 percent of the sixth-graders passed the social studies test, as did about 86 percent of the seventh-graders, according to state figures.

She wondered whether the new social studies standards were clear and
if some of the detailed test questions caught students off guard. Cox
will ask a group of teachers and curriculum specialists to determine
what may have happened.

"We have to do better with this," Cox said.

Changes could be made to the
test and to the material teachers teach, said Dana Tofig, spokesman for
the state education department.

Oops. The test was an inaccurate measurement of student competency?

The shame is that no one will take responsibility and become accountable for this. We'll say it is a starting point, and we'll learn from this "mistake" or "error." Yet who suffers for all this? The students who now have this faulty measure of their abilities on a permanent record. Testing is never the true measure of person's value, nor is it a good measure of their abilities.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Google Sites - Intro To How Schools Could Use This Tool

Thanks to fellow GA blogger Stephen Rahn for this post. Just passing it along.

Wish I could have our school people see it, but it's blocked :-)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Can Kids Learn With Cell Phones?

iPhone - so easy a 2 year old can master the controls.

Imagine what a 7 year old could learn to find on the iPhone...

Imagine what a 12 year old could create for the iPhone...

Imagine what a 17 year old could provide for the iPhone with SDK...

Imagine if K-12 schools would use this tool for learning...

Imagine...

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Thanks to Rob De Lorenzo at the Mobile Learner blog for the find.

Why Standardizing Lowers Thinking Requirements

"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."
-- Socrates

"I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think."
-- Anne Sullivan

When I taught Social Studies, I started each class period with a motivational quote and "This Day In History" brief. I had a former student (from 9 years ago) tell me he still has his Daily Starter Notebook with each quote and history quip.

I like quotes. I like to exegete and interpret them. So I came across the two quotes above a few days ago, and began to work on understanding these out of context thoughts.

At first glance these sentiments appear to contradict each other. But upon closer inspection, they really say the say thing. Socrates is not claiming that he taught his students to think, but that by his method he encouraged the innate curiosity of the brain to work. Sullivan, the miracle worker, said the same thing; the brain seeks to understand, we don't have to artificially make that happen.

As we have made education a Henry Ford type of assembly line, it should not come as a surprise to us that the thinking requirements have decreased. However, it amazes me that so many people do not see this as a result of standardized education. To be standard means to be alike, the same. Some try to preach "high standards" but that is doublespeak. High standards compared to what? I still claim that the "normal" classes I took in school required more thinking than today's "advanced" classes.

Common sense tells us that not every child will reach the highest level of thinking at the same time (if ever). Mental disabilities will hinder the standardization of the brain among children. But Sullivan knew that Helen's brain was looking for stimulation and could already "think."

Can we admit that our country does not value the individual student? We can't. The system, under the current paradigm, will not allow it. We are forced to dumb-down the curriculum to meet standardized measurements. Once we determine an acceptable, standard level of the masses, one of two things will happen: a) we will find that our standards were too low, and raise them slightly (which will become someone's political platform) or b) we will find that the standards were too high, and restructure tests to provide an acceptable level (to save someone's political platform). Seriously, it will be easier for the government to change tests than to improve student accuracy.

My opinion is that option B will win out. I also think it will win out within the next four years, just before the 2012 elections. You heard it here first. :-) Statistics will tell any story one wants to tell.

Testing
What's easier?
Raise levels of thinking;
Make questions easy to answer?
Subtle

Which Do You Think Is Occuring?

"Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain." - John F. Kennedy

This was one of the Quotes of the Day today.

Larry Ferlazzo mentioned Scott McLeod's 6-word motto contest today. As Larry said...

There were a number entries, including some that were really quite
funny (and insightful). However, it was disconcerting to see that, with
just a few exceptions, most were pretty negative.

So, I ask, where do you think we are?

Liberty without learning or Learning without liberty...

Or perhaps I could ask...Are we in peril or is our learning in vain?

Or, was Kennedy wrong?

If I was grading, I would include - Explain the reasoning for your answer. ;-)

Blogged with Flock

Finally, Someone Backs Up What I Knew To Be True

Dr. Scott McLeod is one of my favorite ed. bloggers. Today, he says he's not a conspiracy theorist, then outstandingly supports the long-standing government conspiracy against public schools by providing several details and references.

UPDATE & CORRECTION - Mike Parent wrote the post I refer to here. I wondered why Scott said he was in New Jersey, but then again, this is the time of year for movements to be made. Next time I'll read the byline at the bottom of the Guest Blog. Sorry Mike. Thanks for the comment too.

You gotta love this quote:

"...We shall not try to make these people [the lower and middle classes] or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, educators, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for the embryo great artists, painters, musicians, nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we have ample supply. The task we set before ourselves is very simple... we will organize children... and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way." Rockefeller's General Education Board, Occasional Letter Number One, 1906.

I am a conspiracy kind of guy. Not about the "obvious" things that motivate the masses (Kennedy, Roswell) but the things that are done in the open. The best thieves do not work under the cover of darkness, they work in the daylight so as to convince their observers they are not criminal.

Adult readers, think of your interaction with schools. It is never the teacher who shows up at the opening bell and leaves at the closing bell who finds themselves in hot water in the school. Is it? Sure they may be criticized, but do they really face serious consequences?

In my observation, it is the teacher who gets there early, who seeks to make a true difference in the lives of their students, who stays late to work with students either academically or athletically or in other areas of extra-curricular activities. They put their lives into the lives of kids. They RISK being called out for patting that kid on the back (figuratively and literally).

Why? Have you ever truly wondered?

I think it is because these teachers are likely to rock the boat by getting their students to think for themselves. That is the last thing elitists want...students who think for themselves. Critical thinking is what many educational leaders say they want, but then force teachers to use curriculum that does not encourage, and actually discourages, critical thinking. Again, I will mention that one of the biggest pushes in the early part of the 21st century is Understanding by Design, which is only step 2 of 6 in Bloom's Taxonomy of levels of thinking.

Blogged with Flock

Oh What A Web We Weave

Okay, I'm admitting this post will get very little editing. So many things have "hit me" within just a few hours, and I've been thinking about why school matters, it it does in the traditional sense, and in trying to separate myself from thinking for a while, here's what happens.

Young son (19) comes home last night and says, "Dad you gotta see the professor on the MIT site. He's a physics prof, but he's cool...and old...but funny in a good way...kinda like the Einstein picture with his tongue out." So we watch Dr. Lewin for a while, through iTunes.

A few minutes later I'm floating through Twitter and see someone link to an article on 71-year-old Professor Lewin - http://tinyurl.com/2syhzb

Coincidence?

------

While I'm in Twitterdom, I follow Clay Burrel, and he is an angry young man -- in a great way. "He is so starting his own school." He has a conversation throughout my evening with Sylvia Martinez and others. They begin talking about Papert (another MIT guy I believe) who was a Piaget protege, and constructivism proponent.

I had just finished reading some information from Piaget three days ago, and Papert's work was mentioned as further reading material.

------

This morning, I decide it is time to check on Sir Ken Robinson's progress on "Epiphanies," a book he promised in his 2006 TED Talk. As I'm checking, I get a Twitter update that Sir Ken's website is now functioning. Weird.

------

A few minutes later, I get to thinking about Will Richardson's all-time-great post (IMO) about how his kids don't need to go to college to get the education they need, nor do any of us. I'm really, really trying to accept this concept. Honestly, I can, but I don't know if employers can...yet. So I watch all of the MIT, DUKE, U of Wisconsin undergrad classes. It's like an audit, at best, in the minds of people who still have the view that the college from which you graduated really means anything.

I'm the guy who believes that most employers don't care where you graduated college, but rather that you did graduate. Graduation from most institutions proves to an employer that if you can put up with the garbage in college, you can probably handle in garbage from the business world. But can they, will they, make the leap to acceptance of an audited education?

Then, I decide I will try to blog something. I go into Blogger and I notice the Blog List of 10 you should see. Usually these are a waste of time, but I decide to see what topic are big at Blogger now. Why? Based on Clay Burrel's comment about how bad educators are at making networks outside our arena. So I click the first one...It has Buenos Aires in the title, so I expect a travel site, or something. As it loads, I notice it is Sexy Spanish Club in Buenos Aires. Yikes, I don't have time for this...THEN KAPOW...

I'm an American writer, researcher, teacher and mother of four college students. I'm currently living in beautiful Buenos Aires, Argentina where I'm busy writing a book about creative education...

Her name is Mary Frost. She is writing a book titled: The World Is Your Campus: Skip the SAT, Save Thousands On Tuition, and Get An Outrageously Relevant Global Education.

She has another site dedicated to her writing, called The World Is Your Campus. Good stuff.

What is all this telling me? My wife says, "It's telling you to get away from your computer and go grocery shopping. Let's go already. Tell you're playmates you'll be back later." Reality.

Local Poll - Day 4

Up to 189 votes. This, by the way, is quite a large number of responses to the newpaper's online poll. The largest one I recall had nearly 500 responses. It was about high school football predictions or something like that.

It now looks like if I find myself in a group of 100 people, I might find one person who I can talk to. :-)

UPDATE: This was the final day this poll was available. So approximately 2% of the community where I teach consider education the most important item in the presidential election. Wonder if it would be any different if people could rank their top 3 or 5 items?

Proof of the Struggle (in my neck of the woods)

Our local paper (Dalton Daily Citizen) conducts online polls. Just a moment ago, I found the one below.

A bit of context:

• Dalton is the Carpet Capital of the World. At one time, during the Johnny Carson era (late 1980s), he mentioned on the Tonight Show that Dalton, GA led the nation in three categories 1. Coca Cola consumption (3 shifts in the carpet mills), 2. Millionaires per capita (Carpet Money), and 3. divorce rate (hmmm).
• In 1995, when I did my student teaching at the Jr. High, the school diversity was close to this: 88% white, 10% black, 2% other (Hispanic/Asian).
• Today: Our school system is hovering at 68% Hispanic, 26% white, 6% black, 1% other.
  

Is it any wonder why I feel like a voice crying in the wilderness? I'll update as long as the poll remains.

Are You Smarter Than A 5-Year Old Chimp?

Apparently a 5-year old chimp is smarter than Japanese college students. Okay, don't believe me?

Now I'm really confused...

• Kids from Japan outscore USA kids in math and science year in and year out.
  
• A chimp outscores kids from Japan.
  
• Chimps must therefore outscore USA kids.

Perhaps we should train the chimp to take a standardized test to determine his/her percentile. That's what we do to our kids, right? In the best scenario, our kids would outscore the chimp, and we could validate our approach to education. On the other hand, if the chimp outscores our students, we would be able to learn a better way of teaching to the test from the chimp trainer. Either way, our kids are the winners...right?

[insert smile here]