Turning the Table: Students Rate Teachers ratemyteachers.com is a two-year old web site that invites middle and high school students to rate their teachers. The adult founder of the site says it gives a voice to students on the important question of teacher quality. Many teachers and principals are concerned about the negative tone of some comments. [Source: The Washington Post]
Lights, Camera, Action! Students at Jacksonville's Landrum Middle School are getting a taste of what it's like to produce a local newscast. Landrum is offering four video production classes designed to teach students communication skills, which they practice by producing a daily, seven-minute broadcast of the Landrum News Network. [Source: First Coast Community]
Federal ed-tech funding in trouble for 2004 Four technology-specific initiatives totaling $134 million are among the many education programs still at risk as House and Senate lawmakers try to resolve their differences over 2004 spending. Three of these four programs were preserved in the Senate's version of the education spending bill but were cut in the House version, which more closely follows President Bush's 2004 budget request.
Libraries & Technology: How high-quality library programs raise student achievement The success at Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colo., mirrors the findings of nearly a dozen statewide studies conducted during the past decade. All reached the same powerful conclusion: High-quality school library programs can have a direct, measurable impact on student achievement. [one-time registration required]
Schools grapple with rules on classroom gadgets Handheld devices and laptop computers are now seen as essential school supplies for students from coast to coast--but many schools have only just begun to take the steps necessary to obtain the educational benefits the devices can provide while blocking their potential for inappropriate text messaging, photo swapping, cheating, and chatting.
Apple polishes off titanium line At Apple Expo Paris, the company says it is replacing the last of its titanium PowerBooks with aluminum versions as it updates its entire line of high-end portables. [CNET News.com]
New PSAT, Minus Writing Test, Will Be Introduced in Fall '04. The College Board will introduce a revamped PSAT in October 2004, five months before it rolls out its new SAT, which will, for the first time, include a writing sample. By Tamar Lewin. [New York Times: Education]
New School Year Brings New Technology While student to computer ratios matter, it[base ']s just as important to use computers wisely to support instruction. The Dennis-Yarmouth school system, outside Boston, expects to meet its goal of having one computer for every five students this year. And teachers are ready to use those computers as tools for individualized learning. [Distance-Educator.com]
New Hampshire To Launch Laptop Pilot Seventh graders in five New Hampshire middle schools will receive laptop computers in a pilot program set to launch in January 2004. The four-year, $1.2 million project will be paid for with corporate donations. [MaineToday.com]
Philly schools get Microsoft brotherly love. The software titan spreads the love to the School District of Philadelphia, where it will design and build a new high school wired with the latest in educational computing tools. [CNET News.com]
PowerPoint corrupts Great Edward Tufte rant about PowerPoint and other slideware, and why we should all avoid it. I did a talk a couple months ago and the conference organizers nearly insisted that I bring a PowerPoint presentation to accompany my speech. I told them that I didn't believe in slides for the kind of talk I was giving, and they responded, "But what will keep the audience from getting bored?" Urr, possibly the words coming out of my mouth?
Particularly disturbing is the adoption of the PowerPoint cognitive style in our schools. Rather than learning to write a report using sentences, children are being taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials. Elementary school PowerPoint exercises (as seen in teacher guides and in student work posted on the Internet) typically consist of 10 to 20 words and a piece of clip art on each slide in a presentation of three to six slides -a total of perhaps 80 words (15 seconds of silent reading) for a week of work. Students would be better off if the schools simply closed down on those days and everyone went to the Exploratorium or wrote an illustrated essay explaining something. [via Boing Boing]
Bionic Youth: Technology and Today's Children Newsweek's current online edition features a special report on "Bionic Youth" that examines technology and the youth culture from a variety of angles. One article reviews current brain research and what we are learning about the effects of technology on today's kids who are "the most wired in history."
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