Category: Uncategorized

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Studies Find ‘Easy’ Material May Not Be Easy to Learn

Emerging research suggests that, contrary to what students may think, material that’s easy to understand is not always easy to learn—and working harder can help them hold on to what they’ve learned.

This Education Week article summarizes several research studies on “stability bias” – where people confuse things that are easy to process with things that are easy to remember.

The stability bias works both ways: Not only do students give too little credit to effective study strategies that feel more difficult, but they can give more weight to ineffective strategies that make content feel easier to learn.

It’s like assuming that food that is easy to eat is the healthiest.

Sylvia

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The importance of addressing bullying as part of the learning mission of school

Everyone agrees that school bullying is a problem that should be dealt with, but there is little agreement on how exactly to do it. (Or even if it’s actually happening, see yesterday’s post Survey reveals disconnect in online safety education.) With the advent of new forms of digital agression, schools are having to figure out ways to add those to their prevention programs, even when it’s not always clear what the law is or what societal norms are.

Most people who work in or with schools agree that schools do not change quickly, and adding a few “lessons” on cyberbullying will often have no impact. Many schools won’t even get around to doing anything until a crisis occurs. No matter how much everyone agrees that addressing behavior and citizenship is a whole-school, full-time concern, it gets short shrift on the long to-do list of what school is supposed to provide.

In fact, cyberbullying should not be addressed as a separate issue, it should be integrated with a whole-school, perhaps whole-community approach to bullying and citizenship.

In that light, I found this policy and practice brief, Embedding Bullying Interventions into a Comprehensive System of Student and Learning Supports (PDF) to be very enlightening. It speaks to all these points, and more.

In it, the researchers argue for a move from the traditional view of bullying prevention as an add-on to the school mission, but to address it as a fully integrated component of providing a fully functioning learning environment. They make the case for addressing barriers to learning not as a separate set of programs (such as traditional “bullying prevention”) but as a fully recognized component of the learning mission of the school.

“The time has come to move away from stand-alone programs for addressing problems such as bullying and other specific types of problems manifested by students. Such programs add to the marginalized, fragmented, and piecemeal approach to student and learning supports that has dominated schools for far too long. Rather than pursuing one more discrete program focused on a specific concern, it is essential to use each concern that rises to a high policy level as an opportunity to catalyze and leverage systemic change. The aim should be to take another step toward transforming how schools go about ensuring that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school. To this end, it is time to develop a comprehensive system of interventions for addressing the full range of barriers to learning and teaching and for re-engaging disconnected students. Such a system is needed to coalesce an intervention continuum ranging from programs for primary prevention (including the promotion of mental health) and early-age intervention — through those for addressing problems soon after onset – on to treatments for severe and chronic problems.

Addressing barriers to learning and teaching and reengaging disconnected students is a school improvement imperative. Developing and implementing a comprehensive, multifaceted, and cohesive system of student and learning supports is the next evolutionary stage in meeting this imperative. It is the missing component in efforts to close the achievement gap, enhance school safety, reduce dropout rates, shut down the pipeline from schools to prisons, and promote well-being and social justice.

The time has come to move away from stand-alone programs for addressing problems such as bullying and other specific types of problems manifested by students. Such programs add to the marginalized, fragmented, and piecemeal approach to student and learning supports that has dominated schools for far too long. Rather than pursuing one more discrete program focused on a specific concern, it is essential to use each concern that rises to a high policy level as an opportunity to catalyze and leverage systemic change. The aim should be to take another step toward transforming how schools go about ensuring that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school. To this end, it is time to develop a comprehensive system of interventions for addressing the full range of barriers to learning and teaching and for re-engaging disconnected students. Such a system is needed to coalesce an intervention continuum ranging from programs for primary prevention (including the promotion of mental health) and early-age intervention — through those for addressing problems soon after onset – on to treatments for severe and chronic problems.

Addressing barriers to learning and teaching and reengaging disconnected students is a school improvement imperative. Developing and implementing a comprehensive, multifaceted, and cohesive system of student and learning supports is the next evolutionary stage in meeting this imperative. It is the missing component in efforts to close the achievement gap, enhance school safety, reduce dropout rates, shut down the pipeline from schools to prisons, and promote well-being and social justice.”

Conclusion from Embedding Bullying Interventions into a Comprehensive System of Student and Learning Supports (PDF) from the Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA

Sylvia

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Get the evidence you need for your tech vision to succeed!

A back to school thought… when you are planning for technology, do you know what your stakeholders think, want, and need? It’s difficult to reach out to everyone, to include the parents who don’t come to meetings, students, and administrators who might not want to speak up.

There is a quick and painless way to gain this valuable insight – but you have to DO IT NOW!

Participate in Speak Up 2010 through Fri., Jan 21, 2011

Join with educators from across the country who use the Speak Up Surveys to identify how their students, teachers, administrators and parents want to use technology for learning, communications and collaboration. Participating in the Speak Up Surveys is free and 100% confidential.

Last year, over 5,757 schools and 1,215 districts participated in the Speak Up Surveys. All these districts got terrific customized data about how their stakeholders view technology, and how they compare to other districts. This is the data YOU need to support your technology vision, and there is no other way to get it.

It’s easy to get started, visit the Speak Up website to register your district (or school). Then encourage your students, parents, teachers and administrators to take the online survey. To help you out, check out the tools and tips on the Project Tomorrow website.

Go!

Sylvia

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Shipwrecks, sunken treasure, lost civilizations – nearly free stuff for classrooms

The Museum of Underwater Archaeology (MUA) is pleased to offer several resources for classroom teachers. This page provides information on our “Holding History in Your Hand” kit which includes a written curriculum presenting the six steps of the archaeological process, replicas of artifacts for examination, videos, a sidescan sonar slideshow, bookmarks, and other activities for further exploration. This opportunity is free to all classroom teachers (there is a small fee to help cover shipping and packaging.

via The Museum of Underwater Archaeology About the MUA.

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Back to school – what tech vision will you share?

Back to School time! How did this happen so quickly…

One thing that parents are faced with every fall is the giant packet. Everything you need to know, sign, and send back with checks attached as school starts. In the giant packet is the schools Acceptable Use Policy, known as the AUP to most techie educators. To parents, of course, it’s known as paper 23 of 42, likely to be ignored. To make sure that even diligent parents ignore it, schools create AUPs full of dense legalese, hoping that if anything bad happens, they are “covered.” Whatever that means.

When you see a principal on the news explaining why his school is suspected to be the center of a huge student porn network, does he ever hold up the AUP and say, “but we’re covered!” No, of course not. So why do schools believe that the AUP really does any good at all? And why, oh why do we send this out without a shred of explanation about the GOOD that we expect from students using technology?

I’m not saying there shouldn’t be policy in place, and that these policies shouldn’t be communicated. Of course they should. But why send something home guaranteed to intimidate, or worse, bore parents?

I’ve written about this before (What message does your AUP send home?)

I truly believe that EVERYTHING we do sends a message. It’s important to take a step back and try to put yourself in parent’s shoes for a moment and read the AUP from that perspective. In most AUPs, there is not a shred of positive vision for what “Use” means. They should be called UUPs, or Unacceptable Use & Punishments.

Where is your vision shared? How do you communicate with parents and students about your hopes and dreams for technology? If this is your one chance, and you have to send out the AUP anyway, why not rewrite it so it reads like a vision instead of a promise of punishment? At least add a cover letter to it!

Sure, parents will flip through the packet and might not read it. But then again, it’s your one chance – why not take it?

Sylvia

Thinking about revising your AUP? Visit David Warlick’s wiki School AUP 2.0 for links and an RSS feed to many schools with visionary AUPs.

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Teachers’ Use of Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools: 2009

New data from the U.S. government National Center for Educational Statistics: Teachers’ Use of Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools: 2009.

This First Look report presents data from a spring 2009 Fast Response Survey System FRSS survey on the availability and use of educational technology by public elementary/secondary school teachers. The teacher survey includes information on the use of computers and Internet access in the classroom; availability and use of computing devices, software, and school or district networks including remote access by teachers; students’; use of educational technology; teachers’; preparation to use educational technology for instruction; and technology-related professional development activities. (released May 2010)

Some key highlights:

  • Teachers reported that they or their students used computers in the classroom during instructional time often (40 percent) or sometimes (29 percent)
  • Results differed by low and high poverty concentration of the schools for the percentage of teachers that reported their students used educational technology sometimes or often during classes to prepare written text (66 and 56 percent, respectively), learn or practice basic skills (61 and 83 percent, respectively), and develop and present multimedia presentations (47 and 36 percent, respectively)
  • The percentage of teachers that reported that the following activities prepared them (to a moderate or major extent) to make effective use of educational technology for instruction are 61 percent for professional development activities, 61 percent for training provided by school staff responsible for technology support and/or integration, and 78 percent for independent learning
  • Of the teachers who participated in technology-related professional development during the 12 months prior to completing the survey, 81 percent agreed that ―it met my goals and needs,‖ 88 percent agreed that ―it supported the goals and standards of my state, district, and school,‖ 87 percent agreed that ―it applied to technology available in my school,‖ and 83 percent agreed that ―it was available at convenient times and places

The data is broken down by school size and location, teacher experience, and lots of other variables. They asked about blogs, wikis and other social media, both for parent and student communication as well as class assignments. so if you want to know what percentage of teachers have students contribute to blogs or wikis, and how that varies urban to rural, poverty level, or by years of teacher experience, it’s all here. (Overall, 12% rarely, 9% sometimes/often) There are little variations to ponder, like how the biggest response for “rarely” is from big urban schools.

And that carries throughout – high poverty schools do have and use computers, but the students are doing test prep, not creative work.

So – a treasure trove here for data fans out there…

Update – here’s the link to the raw data.

Sylvia

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$10,000 Internet safety video contest (ages 13+)

Computer security company Trend Micro has an offer for any teen or adult who cares about Internet safety and security and wants to become an award winning filmmaker. The company has launched a contest called “What’s Your Story?” where the person who submits the best short video (no more than 2 minutes) can win $10,000. There are also four $500 prizes.

The deadline is April 30, 2010.

This would be a great project for students to show what they know and put it to work!

Sylvia

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New Hampshire teachers say filtering hampers teaching

via Cyberoam Survey Reveals Most Schools and Teachers Suspect Students Can Bypass Content Filtering Soutions

This survey was conducted by a filtering company and taken by school administrators and teachers at the annual Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference held in Nashua, New Hampshire in Nov. 2009.

  • 66% of the school administrators and teachers surveyed indicated that students know how to bypass their school system’s content-filtering solution
  • 56% sense that their current security solution hampers the teaching process.
  • 89% consider the Internet is generally safe for students.

While I disagree with the filtering company conclusion that these results mean that better filtering is THE  answer, the numbers are interesting. What does it mean when we know something doesn’t work and we keep doing it anyway?

Sylvia