UX Professionals Support Knowbility's Accessibility Training Programs (D...

Solar Eclipse 2017

Solar Eclipse 2017: NASA covers the August 21 solar eclipse live from coast to coast, from unique vantage points on the ground and from aircraft and spacecraft, including the International Space Station.

Cory Booker | Interactive Opening Speaker — SXSW 2017

Welcome to Austin, All Educators & Teachers

All Addictions All the Time Help for

Typing with your fingers, hunting and pecking with a pointer OR do you use both thumbs? Are you more highly evolved and search by voice? Or are you always trying to figure it out. All of us come to our devices and most quickly absorb them as appendages / assistants -- albeit sometimes dysfunctional ones.

Seneca Rewritten for all of Us

Hurry up and live, and consider each day as a completed life...

One who believes every day that life has been complete enjoys peace of mind.
S/he enjoys the present without depending on what does not yet exist...
S/he does not hurl toward an uncertain goal, for s/he is satisfied with what s/he has.
 
Nor is s/he satisfied with little, for what s/he possesses is in the universe...
"All this belongs to me".

-- Seneca, Roman Philosopher and Statesman via ME Middleton

Taking care of yourself and your gifts is a way of honoring the Giver. Live Now.

From Scarboro Missions
a Canadian order

More Lessons Learned

You cannot fix everyone. You have to fix yourself first. Be kind. Be compassionate as well as honest. Especially with yourself.

Compassionate Conversations

Join us + @AustinSymphony for “Compassionate Conversations" on March 29 → https://t.co/9AhE5uM6Lm pic.twitter.com/ivWf0Hn7hI

— Blanton Museum (@blantonmuseum) March 24, 2016

Kellers ARCS Model of Learning Motivation

Kellers ARCS Model of Learning Motivation: ... how to create lessons and tailor teaching to produce motivation in the ... A teacher should make steps to learning (like scaffolding) to help them succeed ...

Alas, I did not learn everything in grad school. You must keep on learning all the time, and one of my fellow instructional designer / technology geek girls shared her knowledge of ARCS with me. I love that it integrates Attention and Relevance as essential to learning. This slide show is a nice introduction to anyone who wants to teach something.

Dividing the Workload

Dividing the Workload

A manager, teacher, supervisor of any kind who does not know how to divide workload can ruin the productivity of those they employ if they cannot determine optimal levels of productivity. When it is so hard for us to self-report accurately as human, how can we hope to learn how to do it for others with trial and error.

E-Learning Journeys: Global Education Highlights (weekly)

Engaging list. Must follow!



E-Learning Journeys: Global Education Highlights (weekly)

Critical Thinking? How disappointed would Socrates Be?

Reason to live | General | Times Higher Education



In the Theaetetus, Socrates asks "What is knowledge?" And having been
told that it is geometry and shoemaking and so forth, he replies, "You
were not asked what things there is knowledge of, nor how many sorts of
knowledge there are ... for our aim in asking was not to count the sorts
of knowledge but to know what knowledge itself is."



Asking the right questions is one half of knowledge.

Patxi Pierce Blog

Patxi Pierce Blog



http://blog.patxipierce.com/#  The API

One Best Thing on the iTunes iBook Store

http://www.mrswideen.com/2014/05/learn-something-new-today-and-implement.html Ran across this today from one of Apple's Distinguished Educators. iBooks created for use in the classroom. So much good information on the use of technology in the classroom.

Cj's Instructional Systems Design Blog: Conceptual Models for Instruction

 Love that my favorite cognitive scientist / instructional designers are sourced for this infographic. Nice job!


Cj's Instructional Systems Design Blog: Conceptual Models for Instruction: Title: Conceptual Models for Instruction ID Basis: Learning Theory and Systems Theory Ever wonder what makes the difference be...

Will Accreditation Trump Diplomas?

Thinking about Accreditation in a Rapidly Changing World (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE.edu

A new path for CBE accreditation would likely focus on three key areas:

1. The learning outcomes or competencies—looking hard at the clarity of claims, definitions and rubrics, rigor, levels of mastery, scope of learning, the basis for the competencies, and more
2. The assessment of mastery—looking hard at mastery assessment, validity, rigor, and more
3. Integrity—looking hard at how the program ensures that the students taking the assessments are those who enrolled, that cheating and fraud are prevented, and that funding support is appropriate and goes to actual demonstrated learning

Tip 69: You can with Tin Can | Elearning Tips

Tip 69: You can with Tin Can | Elearning Tips

Visual Turn • jonportfolio: The education spectrum

Visual Turn • jonportfolio: The education spectrum

The best training has always been interactive, informal, and social. Socrates proved that!

eDidaktik | Inspiration and ideas for teaching

eDidaktik | Inspiration and ideas for teaching Interesting framework mono, poly, and didactic  Check out the MindMap software and other tools for teaching.

American Field Service AFS Texas 2012-13

One of the greatest experiences you can share is travel, education, family life, hospitality, a new perspective on just how culture and geography shape us.

afs.org

Adversity in Learning

Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?

Walt Whitman
US poet (1819 - 1892)


In other words, not all lessons are easy. Not all teachers are founts of wisdom or sensitivity. "Disputed passage."  One of my fave learning quotes, and manly poets.
;-)

Motivation, study habits -- not IQ -- determine growth in math achievement

Motivation, study habits -- not IQ -- determine growth in math achievement

Got this from Research blogger!  Love people who do meta-analyses.  The difference between our schools and other countries, I believe has to do with this. We focus on direct instruction and don't teach enough good study habits. If you're good at something, and it's competitive -- our schools tend to reward "perfection."  Learning requires making mistakes without penalty, except you're own awareness of how to correct it and why.

What we really need to improve education in Texas

Well-trained, mentored and coaching teachers. We lose too much talent. Less bureaucracy, testing, and administrative overhead.

From James T. Mangan's "You Can Do Anything" via BrainPickings.org

The process by which you reason is known as logic. Logic teaches you how to derive a previously unknown truth from the facts already at hand. Logic teaches you how to be sure whether what you think is true is really true. … Logic is the supreme avenue to intellectual truth. Don't ever despair of possessing a logical mind. You don't have to study it for years, read books and digest a mountain of data. All you have to remember is one word – compare. Compare all points in a proposition. Note the similarity – that tells you something new. Note the difference – that tells you something new. Then take the new things you've found and check them against established laws or principles. This is logic. This is reason. This is knowledge in its highest form.

Donald Clark Plan B: Top Ten Mistakes in eLearning

Donald Clark Plan B: Top Ten Mistakes in eLearning

Why are there always acronyms I don't know in blog posts?  What is an MCQ?

Multiple
Choice
Question

There are acronyms because if you teach, you must assess learning to measure your own effectiveness. Especially with adult learners.

I do think condescension is the worst offense. PPT decks help an audience stay focused and hopefully listening on one channel to the speaker who hopefully is not reading the deck. I think the most revolutionary thing about learning is that the TED talk has defined bite-size learning in the 20 Teens.  LMS's are not the answer, or lcms, or moocs or  diploma mills.

Learning is a process of growth. Education is a process of communication. ~ Stephen Downes said many years ago.

Video Editing for Learning

The quick and dirty on using video in the classroom. I realize this may be out of date by now, but then I am a little slow . . .

http://johnjohnston.info/blog/?e=2167

List of Authoring Tools: Part 3

List of Authoring Tools: Part 3

Just found out that one of groups is going to quit using our LCMS because it's so bad at displaying graphics.  Need to review list of authoring tools. Instructional technology has come a long way since Authorware and Basic.

Virtual Learning Edge: Experience the Evolution of Virtual Corporate Learning

Virtual Learning Edge: Experience the Evolution of Virtual Corporate Learning

Interesting half-day Virtual Conference. Missed the live version, but hope to peruse the resources available.

Rapid Instructional Design - Thiagi's Take

http://www.thiagi.com/article-rid.html

Thiagi and Piskurich speed up the task by making the learning task more open-ended and constructivist in approach. Therefore, the design of instruction is often blended with the development and delivery of instruction. Most IDs don't often get to deliver (unless it's eLearning) and even then, they rarely have control over the environment in which the learning occurs.  Most instructors may have developed curriculum, but generally are often more likely to be subject-matter experts (SMEs) than curriculum developers.

I would like more opportunity to try out Rapid ISD approach and plan to do so in my upcoming projects as much as possible.

Alt•Ed Austin - Blog - Hop on the Education Transformation�Tour!

Alt•Ed Austin - Blog - Hop on the Education Transformation�Tour!

This sounds so interesting!  I'm ready to work where people love to learn and collaborate, and share, smile, coach and encourage. I'm ready for lots of positivity, energy, joy, and purpose in my daily life.

Some Differences Between Experts and Novices | Kapp Notes

Some Differences Between Experts and Novices | Kapp Notes

This is one of the challenges of being an Instructional Designer and translating the input from your SMEs into a format, chunks, analogies, visuals that work for your novices. Simplifying the complex. Often I'll feel as if I've emerged from a swamp, when I've finally distilled the intricacies and details into comprehensible overview.

Freestyle Language Center

Structure Pricing � Freestyle Language Center Freestyle Language Center

Social Learning in person.  In Houston, they have Spanish over Coffee.  Here we have Freestyle Language Center. After having studied Spanish for 5 years, I could read novels in Spanish and write book reports, but I couldn't speak it. After 4 mos. in Italy, I was fluent conversationally, especially one-on-one, but struggled with composition, reading literature, and group conversations.

Learning and Acoustics

Why Architects Need to Use Their Ears

This TED talk highlights an important aspect of communication and learning. As an ID for a call center, I'm always amazed how different our audio "scenarios" are from the real world of the call floor.

Even when I listen to calls for coaching, you come to truly appreciate how difficult clear communication is over distances with background noises.  It's funny, because I remember the original "open" classroom movement; in fact the elementary school in our neighborhood is vintage 70s school design with classrooms grouped together and separated only by moveable partitions around a center activity area where bigger groups can work together.   I believe in all of the upper grades, most of the partitions have been replaced by walls, for many reasons.

Unfortunately too often we ignore the central fact of learning and communication -- a message must be heard to be understood. Now say hooray for a moment of silence.

The Official Austin Free Day of Yoga

The Official Austin Free Day of Yoga  I believe in a mind-body connection to learning and meditating, stretching, focusing on the rhythm of your breathing can help focus and relax you. Both are helpful for processing information.

Mary Esther Middleton is my teacher and one of the organizers of FreeDayofYoga.com

MindShift | How we will learn

MindShift | How we will learn  Like this discussion of games in learning.

ATPE - Teach the Vote - Teach the Vote

Thanks, Dr. Julie Westerlund, for keeping me informed about the public school debate in Texas. Dr. Westerlund is a professor of science education at Southwest Texas State University


ATPE - Teach the Vote - Teach the Vote

CHART OF THE DAY: Android Is The Platform Of Choice In The Developing World - Business Insider

CHART OF THE DAY: Android Is The Platform Of Choice In The Developing World - Business Insider

Implications for mobile learning? Quick, up-to-date, nuggets of information that can be pushed out when needed (as requested by the consumer/ or sales person in our consumer society).  The capitalist revolution has won. But diamonds and gold are not the only commodities of value. 1s & 0s in an easily digestible chunk are right up there.

STAAR EOC | TAMSA

STAAR EOC | TAMSA

This is a great site if you think school should be about learning instead of standardized testing.  I have not stayed as fully abreast of the issue here in Texas as I'd like, but mandating end of course exams for all core curriculum AND making them count toward 15% of final grade should NOT be the our state lege's job.

Standardized testing does not increase learning.

Enjoyed hearing Matt Earhart, Austin ISD's teacher of the year speak today

MIND in Pictures: The Cranial Network : Scientific American

MIND in Pictures: The Cranial Network : Scientific American

Love infographics!!!!

Big Dog, Little Dog: The Mosaic of Learning Styles

Big Dog, Little Dog: The Mosaic of Learning Styles   Interesting meta-analysis of the research.

EduCon2.4

This looks like an interesting conference. Stephen Downes always has the most interesting stuff in his OLDaily. Want to try to view the Ustream.

Flipped Classrooms

Love the idea, makes learning peer-to-peer while providing guided instruction, independent study, and social learning.

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

Marketplace Photo Gallery: Images from 'Portraits of the Mind'

Marketplace Photo Gallery: Images from 'Portraits of the Mind' I absolutely love this podcast and the accompanying slideshow of images of the brain through the ages. No longer a black box, but something that can be observed in action.

Back to School for the Billionaires - Newsweek

Back to School for the Billionaires - Newsweek Schools are just part of a bigger problem. A consumer society where parents spend less time with children than their children spend watching TV. Where shopping is the answer to 9/11. Where "the story" and opinion are more important than facts, and facts are reduced to data points on a power point slide.

Our world is troubling. Can our personal actions and collective force change it even when motivated by our best intentions?

Big Dog, Little Dog: Using Kirkpatrick's Four Levels to Create and Evaluate Informal & Social Learning Processes

Big Dog, Little Dog: Using Kirkpatrick's Four Levels to Create and Evaluate Informal & Social Learning Processes

the cluetrain manifesto - signatories

the cluetrain manifesto - signatories: "s have not yet reached critical mass, so as tiresome as it is, we need to stay connected to the fearful mainstream -- at least by a thread. Be gentle with your education.'"

The decline effect and the scientific method : The New Yorker

The decline effect and the scientific method : The New Yorker: "I"

I love the term "cosmic habituation."

From Marvin Marshall's Promoting Responsibility Newsletter

People will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.
--Maya Angelou

This understanding is critical for becoming more effective
in influencing others.

NOTE: If you understand "choice-response-thinking"
(one of the foundations of the discipline and learning
approach), you would immediately interpret Maya's
term "made" into "prompt"--as in "PROMPTED then to feel."

What we see, hear, taste, smell, or touch PROMPTS our
feelings; no one else "MAKES" or "CAUSES" how you feel.

ARC Principles for Designing Great Learning Experiences

Love this description for designing instruction.

A for Aspiration -- Encouraging them to stretch to do their best.

R for Relevance --  "Empower students to co-create their own learning experience" by researching and relating their quest for knowledge to their own life and current needs and situation.

Clarity - Clear feedback and direction, so learners can quickly progress along their learning journey.

Tweet

Photography as Digital Storytelling

This is a great list of resources by D'Arcy Norman for his university class on storytelling. Great links. Great font!

elearningpost

How to create scenario tasks for testing usability of learning content!

elearningpost

How do you condense knowledge?

Stories and parables are shortcuts to remember important truths -- physical, theoretical, mathematical, and spiritual.  For example, the mote in the eye. It's easy to see other people's blindspots but not your own.  Therefore it's importance to change our perspective -- to look through someone else's eyes.

Four Reasons you need structure for informal learning @ Xyleme Insider

Four Reasons you need structure for informal learning @ Xyleme Inside

Excellent article on hosting webinars, and the need for both structure and some spontaneity. Informal learning does not mean you should not set objectives, present material, review what was learned. Especially interested reading about people do not always like jumping from slide to slide. Would love to see a replay of this webinar.

27 Twitter Tools To Help You Find And Manage Followers

27 Twitter Tools To Help You Find And Manage Followers

Social learning -- it's the buzz. Don't follow too many people since I'm not totally a smartphone junkie, but my two favorite are Neil Gaiman and Penn Jillette. Not that I follow them for learning, they're just non-commercial.

What tools do you use?

American Evaluation Association

American Evaluation Association

My friend & former colleague Kathy sent me this link. She is the only person I know who's studied qualitative evaluation, one of my topics of interest. Quantitative evaluation is only one dimension of assessment and multiple measures are necessary to judge performance on at different levels of understanding.

Sign the Motion to Amend




Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Communications

Thoughts? What does it mean for corporations doing biz via internet 24/7??

We all learn differently

But we all learn better when we
see an example,
hear a voice,
practice the task,
empathize with the role,

reflect on the experience.

Why it's so hard to resist tempation: Radio Lab's Story on Willpower and the Slacker Brain

The discussion of the relative weakness of the prefrontal cortex which governs willpower is a fascinating study and one with real implications for educators. Cognitive load is  easily maxed out and the first casualty is willpower?

Positive Interactions

http://www.jongordon.com/newsletter-012510-positiveinteractions.html

Love this suggestion to make daily rituals out of praising employees, going for a walk with your spouse, sharing positive stories.

Must DO!!!

Figuring Things Out

Nothing is as simple as we hope it will be.
- Jim Horning

Thinking about how to teach Call Center employees.

Knowledge -

• Bus. Purpose,
• mission
• Brand
• Who does What - LOBs lines of responsibility
  
• What's Your Job?
• Tools - you use to handle/ Triggers -> Send to Correct Resource.
  

• Customer Service
• Empathy
• Professionalism
• Ethics / Golden Rule

• What's a PA, SPP, Sales Check Info, warranty, claim, case, escalation?
  

• Cause / Effect Classification - Category / Reason

Prejudices & Learning

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
- Albert Einstein

Adversity in Learning

Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?

Walt Whitman
US poet (1819 - 1892)

Realistic in Today's World?

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.
- Thomas H. Huxley

Gilda Lyon's Presentations on Teaching

Trainers - Science

When I was researching assessment and how to assess the quality of teaching, I ran across these wonderful presentations by Gilda Lyon, a career science teacher in Tennessee. They are definitely of value for anyone who thinks that pre-assessment is a waste of time. She also gives some wonderful suggestions for performing informal formative assessments to help students identify what they know and what they still need to learn. I'd appreciate knowing what you think of her presentations.

Just when you think you know everything

You run across something you wish you'd been reading all along. Just found a site that should be on on my list of links. Edutopia.

Beyond Smiley Sheet Evaluations

In our work on developing a plan for Middle School Redesign, we identified the need for teachers to elicit feedback from students and parents regarding the success of their teaching and their students' learning. One of the most commonly used tools for evaluating training in the work world is the smile sheet. Researcher Will Thalheimer has developed his own evaluation \that seeks to provide more specific feedback regarding specific objectives and concepts taught. He even provides a link for you to download his form to use as a template for your own course evaluation. Of course, his form is designed to measure reactions to a one-time workshop offering, but his approach is interesting and would be very useful to apply in the work training setting.

Downes Definitions of Education and Learning

From his canaries.ppt presentation,

Education is fundamentally a process of communication;

Learning is fundamentally a process of growth.

-- Stephen Downes

New law changing the way districts statewide calculate GPAs

New law changing the way districts statewide calculate GPAs

We keep trying to even the playing field so schools like UT Austin don't end up with such low percentages of blacks or others from low socio-economic backgrounds.


We need more research on effective assessment and qualitative evaluation. Predictors of success cannot always be reduced to numbers.

25 Teachers Who Drastically Changed the World | Teaching Tips

25 Teachers Who Drastically Changed the World | Teaching Tips

Every once in a while I need inspiration to continue in my chosen path. This list acquainted me with some unknown names and included some well-known figures I don't often think of as teachers.

Why I'm a Generalist

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.
- Blaise Pascal

Who Dares to Teach Must Never Cease to Learn

1799. John Cotton Dana (1856-1929). Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989

Below are some of my other favorite quotes about teaching.

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards; and curiosity itself can be vivid and wholesome only in proportion as the mind is contented and happy. – Anatole France


If you plan for a year, plant a seed. If for ten years, plant a tree. If for a hundred years, teach the people. When you sow a seed once, you will reap a single harvest. When you teach the people, you will reap a hundred harvests. -- Kuan Chung (d. 645 B.C.)


Learning without thinking is labor lost; thinking without learning is dangerous. -- Chinese Proverb

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



It is the object of learning, not only to satisfy the curiosity and perfect the spirits of ordinary men, but also to advance civilization. – Woodrow Wilson



Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.

-- Thomas Szasz (b. 1920), U.S. psychiatrist. “Education,” The Second Sin (1973).


A teacher can but lead you to the door; learning is up to you. – Chinese Proverb


The teacher’s task is not to implant facts but to place the subject to be learned in front of the learner and, through sympathy, emotion, imagination and patience, to awaken in the learner the restless drive for answers and insights which enlarge the personal life and give it meaning. -- Nathan M Pusey, President, Harvard

Teaching is . . . .

Teaching is about transmitting information and best practices through human interaction from one generation to the next.


How do we measure quality teaching? Through principle-based assessment rather than scores-driven regulation.



Self-assessment (what used to be called reflection) is key to improvement.

Resource Based Learning: Definition

RBL: Definition
Canadian Website for Saskatchewan Schools about the integration of teaching and research, with teacher/librarian as resource for the student researcher.

Austin is 21st in high school graduation rates

Austin is 21st in high school graduation rates

Austin has a graduation rate of 58.2%. The surrounding suburbs have a rate of about 71%. The ethnic rate stats at the end of the article are interesting and may be more reliable, since they are nationwide averages. It would be interesting to compare the ethnic make-up of AISD schools compared to those same suburban schools.

The sad fact that these statistics highlight, even though the article is silent -- No child left behind has resulted in children failing out of the public education system. Students who cannot meet the standards are more likely to drop out, and less likely to be encouraged to remain in school. The stakes (withholding of federal funds) are too high for the schools, and the measures too focused on scores (narrowly interpreted), rather than growth in student achievement.

How do we identify effective teachers and encourage their continued professional growth?

SOURCES OF INFORMATION:

• Teaching Policy to Improve Student Learning: Lessons from Abroad, by Lynn Olson, Education Week (2006). http://www.aspeninstitute.org/atf/cf/%7BDEB6F227-659B-4EC8-8F84-8DF23CA704F5%7D/Ed_Lessons_from_Abroad.pdf

• Human Capital Framework for K-12 Urban Education: Organizing for Success, The Aspen Institute, Program on Education and Society, January, 2008. http://www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJeMRKpH/b.3416305/k.B7A2/Elements_of_a_Human_Capital_Framework_for_Education.htm

• Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job, Robert Gordon, Thomas J. Kane, Douglas O. Staiger, The Hamilton Project (2006) http://www.brookings.edu/views/papers/200604hamilton_1.htm

• Performance Pay for Teachers: Designing a System Students Deserve, a Teacher Solutions Report, http://www.teacherleaders.org/teachersolutions/TSreport.pdf

• Sommers, Rhoda C. “Real” Middle School Teachers, The Qualitative Report Volume 8 Number 4 December 2003 530-538 http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR8-4/sommers.pdf

• Schools to Watch, Freeport Intermediate School. http://www.schoolstowatch.org/freeport/

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:

Most of us use subjective criteria to evaluate teacher effectiveness. Based on our own experience, we know an effective teacher when we experience one, either in our own learning or that of our children. Effective teachers motivate their students to learn, foster students’ self-esteem and their students’ belief in their own ability to master a subject or skill. Effective teachers model their own passion for learning and curiosity about their subject matter. Effective teachers set clear expectations for their students and challenge them to achieve not just the minimum, but their best. Increasingly, teachers must model life-long learning for their students to meet the challenges of our rapidly changing world.

Most of the studies, I reviewed noted the difficulty both in identifying effective teachers using objective criteria, and the dangers in relying solely on performance data that can be easily manipulated. Moreover, teachers work in schools, and the conditions in which they work affect the quality of their teaching. As one school board director noted, “Put a good teacher in a bad system, and the system wins every time.” Our challenge is “not only to nurture good teachers but also to develop good schools in which teachers can be effective.” (Olson, Lessons from Abroad)

It is interesting to note that identifying effective teachers has become increasingly tied to efforts to quantify student achievement and provide a differentiated pay scale for teachers rather than relying on a single-salary schedule. AISD’s own strategic compensation plan is tied to TAKS improvement in reading and math and is targeted primarily to “high needs” schools. The difficulty lies in tracking performance of individual students over time and linking those students to their teachers, and accurately accounting for differences in varied student populations. Most of the studies I reviewed noted the need to “develop and implement longitudinal data systems” to provide objective information linking teacher performance to student achievement.

Some of the ill-fated efforts in places such as Florida and Houston can be attributed to narrowly focusing on short-term improvements in scores, and failing to support collaborative efforts to increase students and teachers improved performance -- instead establishing competitive measures based on rankings. Rather than encouraging the sharing of best practices among teachers and schools, this would seem to foster rivalries and manipulative practices that would in the end defeat the goal of raising the achievement of all students.

The studies I found most compelling placed a strong emphasis on teacher-developed criteria for setting performance standards and professional development goals, guided by the priorities and needs of the local districts in which they worked. We must reward experienced, effective teachers who mentor novice and developing teachers. “Performance-pay plans should encourage more teachers to document effective classroom practices and share them with their colleagues.” (Performance Pay for Teachers, p. 4)

Other ideas worth noting:

• Establishing base pay systems with tiers of “novice, professional, and expert.”

• Supplementing base-pay with performance-pay open to all teachers.

• Demonstrated ability to improve student performance should be rewarded with leadership opportunities, such as mentoring novices and peers, sharing effective teaching strategies, and serving on advisory committees. Excellent teachers should not have to become administrators in order to achieve adequate compensation.

• Offer incentives to teachers who work in high-need schools but only if they are adequately prepared to address the school’s specific learning needs.

• Include accomplished teachers in establishing performance standards and developing compensation plans.

• Encourage all teachers to open up their classrooms to formative evaluations by peers, expert teachers, and administrators. Teachers need feedback in order to improve their teaching skills.

Results Statements For Middle School Reform Action Team

Mentoring:

Foster communities of life-long learning that are student-centered -- whether that student is a child or teen, parent, teacher, or administrator. This implies a need for building relationships that are multi-dimensional and on-going, including one-to-one, peer to peers, and expert to novice.

School Reform

"People who love soft methods and hate iniquity forget this, that reform consists in taking a bone from a dog. Philosophy will not do it."

- John Jay Chapman

This is so true. Change is hard. So hard that we often cling to the problems we know, rather than adopting new approaches.We are researching improving the quality of educators in our middle schools, WITHOUT increased funding. There is no doubt that budgets for AISD are already pinched.

How do you develop and support high quality educators?

Currently I'm on a task force to help redesign the Austin ISD's middle schools. My particular team has been charged with developing an action plan for strategy one of the plan:

We will develop, recruit, support, retain, and recognize high quality principals, teachers, and staff at every middle school to ensure that every student has a quality education.

Big job, right? Well, we're trying to tackle it in manageable chunks, so my focus is going to be on support and development. Still big, but hopefully an area where we can make some concrete suggestions that can be implemented w/o breaking the budget. If you have any links you'd like me to look at, please post them here.

Ask and ye shall receive. . . Time's Cover Story this Week.

Interesting Discussion of Learning: Constructivist and Connectivism

Free Learning and the "so-called" failure of connectivism and constructivist learning.

I always find Downes' take on things interesting. Here he takes to task someone who believes our constructivist theory of learning has failed. What constructivism brought to light that it's almost impossible to "design" learning that fits every novice.

I want to get back to this later.

What you know is different than what you remember?

I'm going to have to read this blog more often. I like the research that is presented, though it requires more than just a casual perusal.

Importance of Enthusiasm for a Subject

"Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Or as Henry Ford said:

"Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas."

When I was younger, my enthusiasm was often commented upon by my elders. Now I wonder, is enthusiasm a characteristic of the young? Perhaps, but I've met young people with little enthusiasm for anything. In fact enthusiasm is often labeled "uncool." But I believe it is still important to convey to students one's on love of learning about a subject.

How can teachers who aren't engaged in their subject, expect to engage others in it?

PBS Programs on Teens

These shows which will be of special interest to Parents of Teens.

•  8pm Growing Up Online


•  9pm Inside the Teenage Brain

You can watch these programs online.

Rules for Teaching

• Start simple.
  
• Praise effort and progress.
  
• Model desired behavior i.e. provide examples, demonstrate.
  
• Use questions to determine what learners need to know.
  
• Provide numerous opportunities for practice and feedback.
  
• Establish routines, but embrace novelty.
  

Some Quotes on Thinking and Our willingness to Think New Thoughts

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
- Bertrand Russell


The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.
- AA Milne

Not much of an update to the blog, but don't think I'm really disappointing any readers, hehe. Oh well, back to work.

Crucial Lawmaker Outlines Changes to Education Law - New York Times

Crucial Lawmaker Outlines Changes to Education Law - New York Times

Probably the most crucial part of this article is the need for better and more extensive measures of student performance than math and reading tests. So many schools are failing to accurately report graduation rates and the emphasis on testing has discounted course mastery requirements.

"I now perceive one immense omission in my psychology: the deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated." - William James

Google

Google: "America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
- Evan Esar"

Dell’s Founder Is Rethinking Direct Sales - New York Times

Dell’s Founder Is Rethinking Direct Sales - New York Times: " *

"Found this article interesting even though it has little to do with eLearning. Dell is a big influence here in Central Texas, and its lagging sales and consequent falling stock performance have been the talk of the town recently. Now it seems that Dell is re-thinking its Direct sales model and may begin to sell to consumers in retail outlets. Supposedly the shift last year to more people buying laptops as opposed to desktops was the turning point. Laptops are harder to customize than desktops, therefore the "build to order" makes less sense.

However, I think that consumers like the shopping experience and many want the hands-on touch and feel they can get when they go to the Apple store or CompUSA, in addition to the immediate gratification of carrying something out the door. It will be interesting to see how Dell can transform its internet/catalog sales to retail outlets.

Austin Independent School District : High School Redesign

Austin Independent School District : High School Redesign

Austin is going through a high school redesign process. This page provides lots of links to similar projects and some results of their research, as well as listing requirements and successful models.

Creating Passionate Users: Random Tuesday Links

Creating Passionate Users: Random Tuesday Links: "There's a very short video clip the SXSW folks put together, edited from my opening remarks there. It's not exactly the way it happened in the talk -- they cut things and rearranged things -- but it does show a couple of the slides about The Suck Threshold."

More on Kathy Sierra's talk at SXSW. After subbing today for a high school theater class, I wish I knew how to create passionate learners. Some of the students were motivated and engaged. Some were bored -- of course, having a sub is often a clear signal to goof off. Some of the students were taking the class simply to fulfill the requirement for a fine arts credit. Too much of today's "schooling" offers students too little inspiration.

SWSWi 2007 Interactive Panels

Those of us who have been to SXSW Interactive know that it is a rare opportunity for the world of interactive media to come to us here in Austin. This year I didn't get to attend but was glad that other fans have posted links to the podcasts available. So far I've enjoyed Bruce Sterling's witty remarks and
Kathy Sierra's keynote. I want to hear more from the panels.

Spinning: EDUCATION: And The Internet

Spinning: EDUCATION: And The Internet

Interesting blog on writing and reading in NewMedia context. Followed lots of her links and want to explore more.

Creating Passionate Users: Face-to-Face Trumps Twitter, Blogs, Podcasts, Video...

Creating Passionate Users: Face-to-Face Trumps Twitter, Blogs, Podcasts, Video...: "The most underrated benefit of the face-to-face effect of conferences is INSPIRATION."

Listening to Kathy Sierra Podcast from SXSWi

Lately, I've become a fan of Kathy Sierra, not even knowing that she was speaking at SXSWi. Her website makes great use of graphics, as well as words. Her writing in the Head First series is engaging and interactive. How do we make our applications, our content, our subject matter so compelling that our readers stay with us, through the "suck threshold" as she's dubbed it.

Interestingly enough, you almost have to listen to the podcast as you look at her blog entry because she uses so many visuals.

No Apple for Teachers

Steve Jobs was in town speaking to a group of education reformers.

Essentially the guru of Apple said schools would never improve as long as teachers couldn't be fired by principals. This statement made me wonder what Jobs knows about public schools, the power of principals, and the actual problems present in today's Texas classrooms. Jobs decried the teachers' unions in a state where unions barely exist, and teacher unions wield almost no power. What's interesting is that Jobs' message was probably more threatening to school book publishers and the textbook adoption process over which Texas exerts tremendous influence. I agree with what Jobs was proposing regarding using online textbooks instead of paper ones. However, I believe that the previous post on relearning learning and creating communities of learners via the internet is a much more powerful paradigm.

Now I have to find this group so powerful that they can get Steve Jobs and Michael Dell in the same room. It sounds like this group was created to support the development of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, known to most Texans as the TAKS.

Relearning Learning

Reading this blognote, from www.elearning post.com blog about Relearning Learning: Applying the Long Tail to Learning--led me to watching the video. I was inspired. However below are simply my notes and cribbing of Dr. John Seely Brown's PowerPoint presentation. You'll have to view it yourself to see the Matrix/ Naruto / Narutrix video or maybe you can view on YouTube, if that's your interest. But for me, it was interesting to hear an engineer talking so creatively about learning and how we might re-create our institutions of learning for today's students and tomorrow's world.

Notes: Listening to Seely Brown presentation at MIT talk about how we can support more collaborative life-long learning.
Learning as enculturation into a Practice.
Slide:
Studio-based learning via the architecture studio model at MIT. All learning is public, from idea to design to prototype to master critique.
Slide:
Learning a practice -- like an apprentice. "Moving seamlessly between lecture, experiment & discussion and addressing the drop-out rate." Pilot worked kind of well -- have to change teaching practices -- changing from being a "Sage on a Stage." Technology by itself is not the game.
Slide:
Learning about vs. Learning to be (sooner rather than later) happens with in an epistemic frame -- a way of seeing the world, a way of knowing the world --

examples: Open source movment: write code that can be read, can be understood, and can be added to -- a community
Decameron Web -- Open Review of Articles / work in progress rendered public / Nature: the Publication

Slide:
What creates meaning for the new digital culture?

"Creating meaning by what I produce and others build on -- a remix, open source culture, and even doing homework with IM."

Remix & Mashup - creative tinkering & the play of imagination -- but it is also creative rendering & the play of imagination.

Naruto & Matrix-- REmix of Matrix using Naruto anime series The Narutrix

Not just consumers of mass media/ amators (doing it for love)

But what about Knowledege Production? Not linear but interactive, recursive - Spiral structures???
The rise of the amateur (amator) class as builder, researcher, scholar, inventor -- Example from amateur astronomy yahoo groups. Faulkes Telescope Project -- Students get remote access Set up on Maui

Slide:

Tapping abundant resources of the net -- Open Educational Resources

OCW - MIT's open courseware
MIT Lecture Browser (video) - experiencing the best

OpenCourseWare Consortium

Connexions - Rice's open content initiative/tools
OLI - CMU's open learning initiative
Open Portals:
WGBH - 113,000 lectures, many on video, BBC . . .

Resources galore. But are they getting better? Creating a learning loop or learning ecology -- the diversity of the users gives us insight into how to improve it.

Next Slide;

A Circle of Knowlege Building and Sharing

Create
support for creating respresentations of pedagogical knowledge & learning experiences

Use
Encourage teachers/students to review, critique, and learn from peers' represented knowledge

----> Blogs, Wiki, KEEP Toolkit, social networks, Web 2.0, etc

Re-mix
Integrate local mods/remixes into communal knowledge base

All connected by an Extended Teaching Commons
providing venues for sharing experiences/evidence to improve practice

Slide:

A Fundamental Transition is Underway in this Age of abundance
supply push-----> demand pull
retail
physical stores ---> online shopping
media
. . . .
advertising

. . . .. News in Korea, citizen reporting, professional editing

Manufacturing
inventory based schemes to lean schemes

supply push works in scarcity / demand pull works in abundance

Slide: A Grand Transition (supply) Push ----> (Demand) Pull

Education:

Building stocks of knowledge --> supporting flows of knowledge
(factory model of educ.) ---> learning ecologies model

Informal learning:
Revisiting constructivist learning but now in virtual communities of practice -- learning by tinkering, designing, creating, remixing, and researching

Uniting the cognitive and social basis of learning -- re-conceiving Dewey in the digital age and . . .
Slide:

The long tail distribution of the networked age (circumventing the scarce shelfspace) how do you serve the longtail -- documentaries -- NetFlicks

The long Tail in Education
Leveraging each segment quite differently Supporting the rise of an ecology of learning/doing niches
Ah, demand pull - I am passionate about this niche topic. I want to learn/do more! Scaffolding for fat part of tail, simulation kits (Moses - nanos, mems?) Spikes

Compactness Theorem Result -- Any kid has a passionate interest can find a niche in community of interest - Spike - Group joining and apprenticing

In School Model: a hybrid passion-based participation in niche communities of co-creation complemented by a minimal core curriculum.

But more generally: could we enable recreation to become a form of re-creation (remix, tinkering, sharing) based on productive inquiry in communities of co-creation.

Retired people can keep boot-strapping their own skills through this passion-based learning.

Productive Inquiry -->social networking

When relaxation becomes an act of re-creation/remix & productive inquiry
|
V
Culture of learning -- a culture that thrives on innovation, life long learning, edge thinking/doing and inspiration - closing the inspiration gap. And national competiveness in a global world.

Comments:
visual learner --> abstract thinkers -->concrete doers

Atonal music / Abstract art / Remix of Romeo Julie --> WestSide Story --> Spiral of learning --> feedback

Join the ateliers to learn / participate, stay in dorm to learn thru OCW / Build up the edge/ transforms the core/ Carnegie group of teachers/ learning through stories/ When do you consolidate learning / blogs in classes/ externalize the class discussion for more reflective learners. MITs Portal for Shakespeare / MashUps / copyrights/ fears of technology/ Creative Commons / wikipedia / We are in a age of transitions, we don't have stable genres, cyber infrastructure how to make it more secure/ SecondLife? / MySpace / study groups/ IM and virtual study groups/ John

eLearning Post

I like this blog for its up-to-date reviews of edublogs.

Campus Technology

Campus Technology has a great article re-thinking learning for the 21st century. Oh, I think I have my reference wrong. That's why I have to get a blogger toolbar. There is no doubt that while classroom instruction still has value, it can be greatly enhanced by online tools.

I've found it interesting that as much as businesses have tried to monopolize the technology for profit, such as the merger of Blackboard and WebCBT, new technologies arise that capture our students' imaginations quicker than corporations can respond.