SaTP_38_Learning_and_the_Brain_pt._2.mp3 Listen on Posterous

1) The World is Obsessed with Facebook, a staggering kinetic typography video on how much the world uses Facebook. - KB

2) Negative+Math+Stereotypes=Too few women  TAT
Women earned only 18% of all Computer Science degrees and made up less than 25% of the workers in engineering- and computer-related fields in 2009. These statistics stand in stark contrast to the gains they have achieved in law, medicine, and other areas of the workforce.  

3) QuickCite  TAT
Scan your books. Rock your world.  Need to cite a reference?
Don't worry, we got your back.  Just scan the barcode of a book and receive the citation in your email inbox.

Main Topic:   Learning and the Brain Follow-Up

A Growing Trend for Dealing with WMDs* in the Classroom: Tech Breaks

“If you keep tech away/off for 15 minutes, then we will have a short tech break” - Students don't fret about checking (and surreptitiously try to check phones, etc)... and they report being happier *Wireless Mobile Devices”  

The Marshmallow Test - In the late 1960s, psychologist Walter Mischel performed a series of tests on preschoolers referred to as The Marshmallow Tests. Mischel would give a child a single marshmallow, then leave him or her alone in the room with it. Before he departed, he'd make each kid an offer: if they wanted to, they could eat it immediately -- but if they waited for him to return, they'd get two marshmallows. The tests were designed to examine willpower and the mental processes behind delayed gratification. Watching kids go through the experiment can be poignant... and adorable.

Open Phone Tests - is this the wave of the future?

Global Assessment Alternatives

PISA testing - OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)

•  
  •  
    • actual numbers from The Principal Difference
    • Erik Hanushek’s take on the PISA cross-comparisons

Tim's Tech Tidbit:

Home Broadband continued:  Wireless Access Point Security (“use the password!”) and change the channel (conflicts with phones and microwaves)

Endorsements:

Roger: Teach Genetics - Great background material and hands-on labs designed for educators.  Down-loadable lesson plans, plus can go online to do virtual labs & Sherry Turkle - Alone Together -- Why We Expect More from Technology and less from each other.

Cammy:  Vassar’s Sistine Chapel in Second Life (YouTube Clip)

Kevin:  Kindle for Windows or Mac OSX

Tim: Learn to Code: The Full Beginner’s Guide (LifeHacker)

- Learn How to Code this Weekend

- Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code

SaTP_37_Learning_and_the_Brain_Conference.mp3 Listen on Posterous

2) A Dozen or So Reasons I Applaud Lamar High School for Ditching School Library Books by Lisa Nielsen  TAT (Tech&Learning)
Librarians, educators, and parents are up in arms after Principal James McSwain of Lamar High School in Houston, Texas ditched many of the books in his library and re-opened the facility as a high-tech Reading / Research Center & Coffee Shop this year.

3) Watson wins ‘Jeopardy!’ bout against humans KB http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/02/16/watson-wins-jeopardy-bout-against-humans/

Main Topic: Learning and The Brain - iGeneration: How the Digital Age Is Altering Student Brains, Learning & Teaching

Tim's Tech Tidbit:
Home networking, broadband connectivity and NAT (Network Address Translation) (wired vs. wireless)

Endorsements:

Sean: Anti-endorsement! Down with PowerPoint!  

Endorsing Presentation Zen and writings of Guy Kawasaki

Cammy: Notability

Kevin: Portal videogame

The Race for the Double Helix Watson and Crick race to find the structure of DNA before Linus Pauling, Maurice Wilkins, or Rosalind Franklin can find the key to unlocking the secret. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093815/

Tim:

Gunn High School in Palo Alto
http://gunnlibrary.tumblr.com/

2) New A.P. Bio Ready to Roll but US History Isn’t - NYT

3) Future Shock  2.2  Alvin Toffler was “spot on” in his prescient disquisition of 1966.  Now his associates have offered another rubric for thinking about what may well be coming down the pike. They offer these thoughts free on line at   http://www.toffler.com/docs/40%20for%20the%20Next%2040%20101011%20FINAL.pdf

4) Study Finds Social-Skills Teaching Boosts Academics - EdWeek
Social and emotional education seeks to provide a foundation for academic instruction by teaching students skills in self-awareness and management, getting along with others and decision-making.

5) Apple patents an iPad stylus... For students? - NYT
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, made this observation last year when he said students need a pen to be able to interact with a tablet in a school setting. Mr. Gates said that the iPad is good for reading, but not necessarily creating.
Others are thinking about it. What if Apple were to make a stylus for the iPad that also was a recording device like the Livescribe pen?Or better, imagine your professor talks and it’s all auto-transcribed to your iPad.

6) Technology and Schools: Should We Add More or Pull the Plug? - HuffPost - Laurie David is the author of The Family Dinner. Susan Stiffelman is the author of Parenting Without Power Struggles
It is time to engage in a purposeful, reasoned debate about where we're headed with the use of digital devices in the classroom. We recognize that there is tremendous value in technology and learning, and are by no means advocating abstinence. But we need to be cautious about plugging our kids in more, pushing them into an even greater dependence on electronics. We need balance that stems from understanding that more isn't necessarily better.

7) Tree octopus exposes internet illiteracy mySA
Most students “simply have very little in the way of critical evaluation skills,” Leu said. “They may tell you they don’t believe everything they read on the Internet, but they do.”

Main Topic: Rushton Hurley from NextVista.org

3) Keep All the Top Teachers - OpEd by Michelle Rhee, Sunday (Jan 22) - NYT
(toward the end) - In his State of the Union address, President Obama should call for a federal law that would require states to help parents ascertain whether their children are getting the high-quality instruction they need to prepare for college and the work force. Parents who find that their children are not being taught by an effective teacher in a successful school should have the right to vote with their feet by choosing a different school.
Now that 12 of the 50 states have laws that allow school administrators to consider teacher effectiveness in making layoff decisions, one in four children in America stand to benefit. President Obama must make an all-out effort to help the other three.

4) Does College Make You Smarter - OpEd Debate, Mon (Jan 24) - NYT
A recent book titled "Academically Adrift," claims that 45 percent of the nation's undergraduates learn very little in their first two years of college.
The study, by two sociologists, Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia, also found that half of the students surveyed did not take any classes requiring 20 pages of writing in their prior semester, and one-third did not take any courses requiring 40 pages of reading a week.
The research has come in for some criticism. But a larger question is: Have colleges, in their efforts to keep graduation rates high and students happy, dumbed down their curriculums?

5) Google and Mozilla Announce New Privacy Features - Tanzina Vega, Mon (Jan 24) - NYT
[In Firefox] The mechanism, being called a Do Not Track HTTP header, would rely on companies that receive the information to agree not to collect data.... Tracking Protection for Internet Explorer 9 that would rely on lists that users create that indicate which sites they do not want to share information with....Google’s approach relies on a browser extension, or plug-in, called Keep My Opt-Outs that will work with all versions of its Chrome browser. The extension would allow users to permanently opt out of being tracked by online advertisers who already offer opt-out options through self-regulation programs

6) Severe Mental Health Disorders Untreated in Many U.S. Teens - MedicineNet.Com
Researchers examined data from a nationally representative sample of 6,483 adolescents, aged 13 to 18, and found that only 36.2% of those with any mental disorder received treatment.
The disorders most likely to be treated were attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (59.8%) and behavior disorders, such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder (combined 45.4%), study author Kathleen Ries Merikangas, of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, and colleagues found.
On the other hand, only about one in five teens with anxiety, eating or substance abuse disorders received treatment. In addition, Hispanic and black adolescents were less likely than whites to receive treatment for mood and anxiety disorders, even when the disorders caused severe impairment, the researchers noted.

7) Barak Obama’s State of the Union Address - Racing to the Top =?= our Sputnik Moment

2) (On a related note) Bill Gates Says Tech Is The Key to Driving Down College Costs
(3 min clip)

• “trying to provide a $200,000 education to every kid who wants it- and only technology can bring that down not just to $20,000 but to $2,000”
• pro-KIPP & charter schools’ immersing students in learning - “Thank god for charters. There’s no room for innovation in the standard system.... There should be about 20 times as much [experimentation] as there is.”
• note he doesn’t predict radical changes in K-12 by virtue of parents’ need for someone to “babysit” - ouch

3) New MIT OpenCourseWare Initiative Aims to Improve Independent Online Learning
These aren't distance learning classes - there is no instructor, no contact with MIT, no credit. But the courses are meant to be stand-alone offerings, not requiring any additional materials for learning.

4) Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua

I haven’t read the book, but I’ve been enjoying the national dialog over it. Anyone else? - KB

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-heffernan-/if-youll-do-anything-for-_b_810350.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/opinion/18brooks.html?src=me&ref=homepage
http://www.montereyherald.com/entertainment/ci_17087705

5) 3 Big Reasons Harvard Has A Record Number of Applicants - Edudemic - CT (#1 and # also fit for Stanford according to recent articles...Stanford received 23,956 applications for admission to the Class of 2011. This number represents an increase of more than 7 percent from last year.  2,465 applicants, or 10.3 percent, were admitted.)
Harvard had nearly 35,000 applications versus last year’s 30,489. That’s 15 percent more applicants than last year, which was also a record-setting year.

1. This meteoric rise has a reason. It’s not just because Harvard is a good school with a good reputation. It’s in part due to the generous financial aid program.  -- Harvard College’s financial aid program requires no contribution from families with annual incomes below $60,000, and asks, on average, no more than 10 percent of income from families with typical assets who make up to $180,000
2. Two other factors also may have played a role in this year’s record total. The new School of Engineering and Applied Sciences continues to attract greater numbers of students who aspire to study engineering, computer science, and related fields.
3. In addition, more students than ever before, nearly 99 percent, are using online application services. Such services enable students, especially those with few counseling or economic resources, to apply to college more easily. -- Applications increased from all geographic areas, but particularly from the South, the Midwest, the Mountain states, the Pacific region, and abroad. Gender breakdown is close to last year’s 50/50 ratio, and minority numbers have continued to rise.

Main Topic:  Kevin’s Snapshot from the CLMS & CLHS Professional Learning Communities and Tech Conference

• Google Moderator - feedback and questions/comments during presentations for differentiated instruction

• Rushton Hurley - simple multimedia tools for instructional use; teachers as meaningful professionals
• Audience Response Systems in the Classroom - “dedicated clickers” vs. “poll anywhere”

Tim's Tech Tidbit:
Recording voice for making poetry mp3s the low-brow way
- Audacity (Windows or Mac)
http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/17-audacity-tutorial.htm
- Sound Recorder (Windows)
http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/dl/dl-help/help-SoundRecorder.htm
- TapeDeck (Mac)
http://tapedeckapp.com/

Endorsements:

Cammy:  Chaser the Border Collie and Animal Cognition - NYT

Kevin: ctrl-f or command-f the mini search engine that can save you tons of time

Tim: Why and How I Switched to a Standing Desk - SmarterWare.com

“Next month, the board, the nonprofit organization that owns the A.P. exams as well as the SAT, will release a wholesale revamping of A.P. biology as well as United States history — with 387,000 test-takers the most popular A.P. subject. A preview of the changes shows that the board will slash the amount of material students need to know for the tests and provide, for the first time, a curriculum framework for what courses should look like. The goal is to clear students’ minds to focus on bigger concepts and stimulate more analytic thinking. In biology, a host of more creative, hands-on experiments are intended to help students think more like scientists.”

2) PBS Newshour - “Is Technology Wiring Teens to Have Better Brains?” - (10 min video)
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june11/digitalbrain_01-05.html  

3)  KhanApp Offers Free Education To Go
Education on-the-go is now easier thanks to Khan Academy's mobile application. KhanApp is a mobile webapp that offers a full-fledged application experience around your favorite Khan Academy videos.

4) Virginia Poised to Ban Teacher-Student Texting, Facebooking - (ReadWriteWeb)
Such is the case with a set of guidelines, set to be voted on this week by the Virginia Board of Education, that will establish the state's policy for how students and teachers can interact via text-messaging, social networking, and online gaming. In a nutshell: they can't.

5) Connectomics from NYT’s “In Pursuit of a Mind Map, Slice by Slice”  - mapping memory and personality in the brain; “The connectome is a product of your genes and your experiences. It’s where nature meets nurture.”

Main Topic: A Quaker Education in a High-Tech Era with Guybe Slangen, Assistant Head of San Francisco Friends School - a K–8 co-educational independent school that combines outstanding academics with Quaker values of simplicity, integrity, mutual respect, and peaceful problem-solving.

Endorsements:

Cammy:  http://www.teachparentstech.org/

Kevin: backpacks! I like the Kata DR 467i

Tim: How to Audit and Update Your Passwords

Researcher Develops Password Hacking Software for Wi-Fi Networks Using Amazon Web Services

2) Rethinking Bullying: Kids Don't See It As Bullying TechDirt TAT
Danah Boyd, who actually studies social interactions online among young people, recently put up a fascinating post about how kids and adults seem to totally talk past each other on these issues, in large part, because kids don't think of these things as "bullying."

3) Edmodo Is a Social Network for Teachers and Students LifeHacker TAT
Edmodo is a teaching tool modeled after social networks with a focus on communication and not merely distribution of information from the teacher and grade reporting -- Curiously, I just made an account on Friday, based on a recommendation from the PBS gang. Would use it for sure if we didn’t have moodle. -CT

4) Legislator Wants to Mandate Homework Help - TribStar - CT

An Indiana state legislator intends to introduce a bill to require mandatory homework assignments for early elementary school students and measure parental involvement in its completion.

State Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Lizton, said the legislation is aimed at identifying students who lack parental support and increasing community efforts to assist those students.... Teachers would then be required to report that information to school administrators, who would then make the homework completion rate public without identifying the individual student or classroom teacher.

Past studies have shown that teachers of colors are drawn to poor urban schools out of a desire to “give back” to their communities, and they tend to stay there longer than whites. But previous research by Ingersoll found that in 1995 and 2005, minority teachers had turnover rates that were 20 percent and 18 percent higher, respectively, than for whites, which was puzzling.

7) Study: Blame parents, not teachers - Portland Press Herald - TAT

An Associated Press-Stanford University Poll on education found that 68 percent of adults believe parents deserve heavy blame for what's wrong with the U.S. education system

Endorsements:

Cammy: RSS feed Psychology Headlines Around The World from The Social Psychology Network

Kevin: Google Lit Trips Exploring the settings of great literature with Google Earth

Tim: EFF guide to E-Book Privacy

News of the Week:

1) A world of misery left by bullying The Boston Globe - KB
A dozen years have passed since Anthony Testaverde roamed the halls of Gloucester High School in fear. Yet the 29-year-old remembers the bullying like it was yesterday: the unsupervised locker room that flooded him with terror. The boy who held his arms while another classmate punched him. The day they slammed his head into a metal locker: “Why don’t you just kill yourself?’’ they asked.

a growing body of research suggesting that the bullying experience stays with many victims into young adulthood, middle age, and even retirement, shaping their decisions and hindering them in nearly every aspect of life: education and career choices; social interactions and emotional well-being; even attitudes about having children.

2) In class, texting is the new doodling AP - KB
The anonymous survey of 269 Wilkes [University] students found that nine in 10 admit to sending text messages during class — and nearly half say it's easy to do so undetected. Even more troubling, 10 percent say that they have sent or received texts during exams, and that 3 percent admit to using their phones to cheat.

3) Hey! We're getting iPads! Isn't that great?!?!?  ZDNet Tech Ed - TAT
“Although it’s a great step forward in a small, rural school that has struggled with technology implementations, I had to work pretty hard to hide my reservations and skepticism from them.”

4) Why I Will Not Teach to the Test Education Week - TAT
In the midst of controversy surrounding “value added” teacher assessment, which flared recently following the Los Angeles Times’ public teacher rankings, the real issue is often overlooked: The state tests being used to evaluate student progress—and, in turn, the effectiveness of teachers—virtually ensure mediocrity.
Depth versus Content Learning Study

5) Slate’s Classroom of the Future Pick - CT (Slate’s actual page)

Main Topic: Charter Schools and College Counselling Cont’d w/ Ellen Masten

• What are the differences between charter schools, public schools and independent schools?
• What’s in the secret sauce for successful charter schools?
• Is admission into charter schools all conducted by lottery (as in Waiting for Superman)?
• What are the most influential trends in college admission processes these days?

Endorsements:

Cammy: 360 View of London @ http://www.360cities.net/london-photo-en.html and Tech & Learning’s Virtual Tech Forum -  8 Videos on Educating Innovatively

Kevin: IPEVO camera

Tim:  Desk of the Future?

       5 Web-based alternatives to PowerPoint

News of the Week:

1) Thomas Friedman’s “Teaching For America” Op-Ed piece in Sunday’s NYT
Honoring teachers as professionals, preparing & compensating them accordingly; role of parents - The more we demand from teachers the more we have to demand from students and parents.

2) Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction NYTimes Magazine
“Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. And the effects could linger: “The worry is we’re raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently.”

Allison Miller, 14, sends and receives 27,000 texts in a month, her fingers clicking at a blistering pace as she carries on as many as seven text conversations at a time. She texts between classes, at the moment soccer practice ends, while being driven to and from school

“The headline is: bring back boredom,” added Dr. Rich, who last month gave a speech to the American Academy of Pediatrics entitled, “Finding Huck Finn: Reclaiming Childhood from the River of Electronic Screens.”

3) Computers In Schools Are A Failure, Says Computer Pioneer Alan Kay [Apple in Educ]
Kay says the education system has squandered 30 years of technology in classrooms. He likens the modern factory educatory system to a monkey with a microscope. The monkey looks at its reflection in the microscope’s barrel but doesn’t look through the eyepiece — it utterly misses the point.

4) Project Red: Do 1:1 right or don't do it at all ZDNet Education
Last month, Project Red, an initiative to “Revolutionize Education” through technology, released findings on the utility and factors for success in 1:1 computing. Their research, which spanned almost 1000 schools using a comprehensive survey instrument over the 2009-2010 school year suggested that, when done correctly, 1:1 computing can have measurable and significant impacts on teaching and learning. When done poorly, 1:1 is just an added cost without any added educational value.

5) The Secret To Getting Every Student Excited About Writing Tech&Learning
“A lot of student writing is of little interest to anyone beyond the teacher.”

Main Topic:  College Admission: 2010: Part I (through submitting applications)

Guests Ellen Masten and Michele Radcliffe

• 8 Big Changes to College Admission in 2010-2011 - Yahoo News

Questions on our minds:

• When should students first start thinking actively about college admission and what should their initial steps entail?
• What are your tips for helping high school students identify the best college/universities to match their interests & personalities?
• How many schools should a student be applying to?  Is there a notion of applying to too many?
• How important are college visits? interviews with reps? teacher evaluations? course rigor vs. SAT scores?
• What are the trends now that admission offices with smaller staffs are inundated with more applications? (See “Application Inflation” from previous podcast)
• How can an applicant make his or her application stand out from the crowd? Do DVDs and ePortfolios help showcase student work effectively or are they ignored for lack of time?
• How has the role of private counselors evolved and are parents getting their money’s worth?
  • A new ethics code for college admissions counselors - EducationNews.Org & USA Today 6.7.10 - The number of families hiring private counselors to advise them on the college application process continues to grow, with one recent study estimating that 26% of "high achieving" students now make use of such counselors. The field is unregulated and includes many one- or two-person operations, as well as large, slick businesses that boast about their clients' track records.

Tim's Tech Tidbit:

Facebook Connect (and what you give away by using it)

Facebook Developer Documentation

Cammy: VoiceThread - a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways

Kevin: 20 Things I learned about Browsers and the Web  by Google: http://www.20thingsilearned.com/

Tim: My endorsement is the same as Kevin’s!

1) How Kinect Got an Autistic Kid Gaming  (from Gizmodo)
GamingNexus editor John Yan has a four-year-old son with a mild form of autism. The little guy's tried to play 360 and PS3 but has trouble getting a hold on the controllers. With Kinect, though, he was an instant pro.

2) Electrical Brain Stimulation Improves Math Skills - New Scientist

3) Teacher’s Death Exposes Tensions in Los Angeles - NYT
When The Los Angeles Times released a database of “value-added analysis” of every teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District in August, Mr. [Rigoberto ] Ruelas was rated “less effective than average.” Colleagues said he became noticeably depressed, and family members have guessed that the rating contributed to his death.
A moderate voice of reason? - “Not including value-added measures is not acceptable,” said Yolie Flores, a board member of the Los Angeles Unified School District. “But it also has to be part of a more comprehensive system of evaluation.” - or the contrary view - Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, argued that reliance on value-added assessments actually hindered efforts to carry out comprehensive teacher evaluations.

4) from eSchoolNews
-- Study: Teacher bonuses failed to raise test scores
-- School of One Boosts Individual learning

Main Topic: 2010 National Education Technology Plan
U.S. Announces National Ed-Tech Plan Education Week
The U.S. Department of Education intends to pay for research to study online professional-collaboration communities for teachers and other educators, according to the action plan in the final version of the Obama administration’s National Education Technology Plan.
The final version of the plan, unveiled Tuesday by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, also pledges to finance development of open-source educational resources and launch an initiative dedicated to defining and increasing educational productivity. Mr. Duncan spotlighted the plan in a speech at a conference of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, held at the National Harbor complex in Prince George’s County, Md., just outside Washington.

Tim's Tech Tidbit:  Testing your Connection Speed
http://www.broadband.gov/qualitytest/about/
http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest
aiming for DSL of 2-4 MBs, cable 2-6MBs, “burst capabilities” 10-20
direct connections = T-1 1.2 MBs fixed, T-3 much higher

Endorsements:

Cammy: 16: Moments (short YouTube clip by creators of RadioLab - powerful model of digital storytelling using only 50 or so words)

Kevin: California Dreaming a Creative Commons Dutch film on California’s Economic Crisis.

- dedicated to creating outcomes to education reform

Endorsements:

Cammy: Keep up on edtech topics with http://paper.li/ISILBOY and RSA Vision app for iPhone (watch those cool animations like Sir Ken Robinson’s on your iPhone!)

Kevin: Google Calendar’s World Calendar Lab extension

4) Some snowed-in Ohio students to learn online from The Washington Post -

Roger: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/drugfree/sa2lk16.htm

polychromatic syllacious styluses w/ concept mapping

Kevin: The Tinkering School: Gever Tully (Woodie Flowers at MIT?

Lucy: The Center for Graphic Facilitation - mapping through drawings; Global  Education Conference from Nov 15-19 w/ Steve Hargadon; YoLink searching and Sweetsearch.com
elemenous@gmail.com; skype/twitter = elemenous

Tim:  http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100913/00133010984.shtml - register your blog for DMCA protection with the copyright office

Cammy: Brain Rules for Baby - John Medina & Bookster iPad app - takes a standard book, with illustrations, and adds an audio narration recorded by a child. Each time you flip the page, the audio automatically starts, and each word is highlighted on the screen as it's said aloud. Touch individual words and they’re read aloud to help with pronunciation skills. App also allows the user to record his or her own voice for each page of the story.

• What historically has been the role of education? How is that role changing? What are the gains and losses inherent in moving toward a more technological mode of teaching and learning?
• What factors account for the rise in home schooling in America? the rise of learning centers? What are the positive features of these forms of education worth incorporating in the broader educational system?
• How might national certification systems benefit our kids by allowing more learner control?
• What is important to know in this day and age? What knowledge and skill sets should guide our curriculum building?
• What might K-12 schools look like in 2012?