Jeff Piontek is an author, keynote speaker and teacher (most importantly). He has worked with many at-risk school districts nationally and is a thought leader in on-line and blended learning.
The literacy landscape is rapidly evolving to the extent that we can no longer expect what it will be like in the next coming years. Regardless of the nomenclature, whether you call them new literacies, emerging literacies, 21st century literacies , the traditional concept of literacy has definitely undergone so much transformations and modifications in the last two decades especially in the light of the the new technological advancements and the emergence of new forms of using and interacting with text. Literacy now entails more than just being able to decode (read) and encode (write) text, but also includes the ability to express and communicate through a multimodal system of signs, the ability to analyze, evaluate, synthesize, critically appraise and share different forms of information.
For those of you interested in delving deep into the concept of new literacies, the academic works below are definitely a must read. These books will help you understand the essence of 21st century literacies and enable you to conceptualize a working definition of what they mean in an academic context.
Looking for some TED talks to inspire young minds? The list below contains some wonderful talks to watch with your kids. The talks highlight the importance of creative and imaginative thinking in unlocking the doors of possibilities and knowledge. As the late Maxine Greene argued in her book ‘ Releasing The Imagination”, students need to be given spaces where they can use their imagination because imagination enables them to search for new beginnings and open up new perspectives helping them identify alternatives, without imagination, their lives narrow and their pathways become cul-de-sacs. I would add my TED talk in there as well but that would be self-promotion. LOL Just in case anyone wanted to see it here is the link.
“What do science and play have in common? Neuroscientist Beau Lotto thinks all people (kids included) should participate in science and, through the process of discovery, change perceptions. He’s seconded by 12-year-old Amy O’Toole, who, along with 25 of her classmates, published the first peer-reviewed article by schoolchildren, about the Blackawton bees project”
“Fifteen-year-old Tavi Gevinson had a hard time finding strong female, teenage role models — so she built a space where they could find each other. At TEDxTeen, she illustrates how the conversations on sites like Rookie, her wildly popular web magazine for and by teen girls, are putting a new, unapologetically uncertain and richly complex face on modern feminism.”
Jack Andraka talks about how he developed a promising early detection test for pancreatic cancer that’s super cheap, effective and non-invasive — all before his 16th birthday.
“If I should have a daughter, instead of Mom, she’s gonna call me Point B … ” began spoken word poet Sarah Kay, in a talk that inspired two standing ovations at TED2011. She tells the story of her metamorphosis — from a wide-eyed teenager soaking in verse at New York’s Bowery Poetry Club to a teacher connecting kids with the power of self-expression through Project V.O.I.C.E. — and gives two breathtaking performances of “B” and “Hiroshima.”
Thomas Suarez’s interest in technology and programming led him to learn Python, Java, and C “just to get the basics down.” He built an app and then coaxed his parents into paying the $99 fee to get his app, “Earth Fortune,” in the app store. Thomas also started an app club at school to help other kids build and share their creations, and is now starting his own company, CarrotCorp.
Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs “childish” thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids’ big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups’ willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.
11-year-old Birke Baehr presents his take on a major source of our food — far-away and less-than-picturesque industrial farms. Keeping farms out of sight promotes a rosy, unreal picture of big-box agriculture, he argues, as he outlines the case to green and localize food production.
As Philadelphia’s Superintendent of Schools, I recommended the approval of more than 30 charter schools because I thought it would improve educational opportunity for our 215,000 students. The last 20 years make it clear I was wrong.
Those advocating change in Maryland’s charter law through proposed legislation are equally committed to educational improvement. They are equally wrong. New policy should not build on current inequities and flawed assumptions, as the proposed charter law changes would do.
Mixed academic results: Charters, on the whole, do not result in significant improvement in student performance. It’s mixed at best. In some evaluations, charter schools overall actually underperform regular public schools.
cComments
Mr Hornbeck, thank you for writing this. Now that the damage has been done here in Philadelphia, articles like yours might help turn the tide for our district. Philadelphia School District is already $80 Million in the red for next year’s budget; much of our financial problems are caused…
Funding and unequal opportunity: Charter funding is also negatively affecting regular public schools. Charter advocates rely on the premise that as money flows from a regular school to a charter school, the costs of the regular school go down proportionately. Sounds good; it’s just not true. Costs in schools sending students to charters cannot shift as fast as students and revenue leave. The costs for the principal, heating, lights, building debt and many other things remain; thus, the remaining children face the prospect of larger class sizes and cuts to core academic programming, music, art and other inequities. Opportunity for the 13,000 charter school students in Baltimore City is in part funded by the loss of opportunity for the remaining 70,000 students without a commensurate performance improvement by charter school students.
According to Moody’s Investors Service, charter schools pose the greatest credit challenge to school districts in economically weak urban areas and may even affect their credit ratings.
Further, the proposed legislation also assumes all students cost the same to educate. Again, not true. It costs more to provide a quality education to some, such as those with severe disabilities, who are rarely served by charter schools, leaving traditional schools to disproportionately bear this cost at the expense of all students.
States with “stronger” charter laws are not doing better: Advocates say we need a “stronger” charter law, noting that Maryland ranks near the bottom. Pennsylvania’s law is ranked much higher, yet its charter growth is contributing significantly to a funding crisis that includes draconian cuts to teachers, nurses, arts, music and counselors in Philadelphia.
We need the best and brightest teachers: The proposed “stronger” law undermines collective bargaining that protects teachers from politics and favoritism and has been crucial to improvement in compensation and benefits. It would create a two-tiered system in which charter teachers would have to organize and bargain separately with each charter opting out of the larger system’s contract. Unionization is not the problem. There are no unions in many of the nation’s worst educational performing states. All schools, charter or traditional, must pay competitive salaries and benefits to attract experienced, skilled teachers who can succeed with all children.
Charters do not serve students with the greatest challenges: Charters will be quick to point out they enroll high percentages of low-income students. Some do. However, the citywide charter lottery inherently skims. Every student chosen has someone (parent, pastor, friend) who encouraged and is advocating for her/him to apply and succeed. That fact by itself creates a select pool of students and a corollary depletion of those students in non-charter schools.
The expansion of state board authorizing power is not needed: There is no evidence that states with separate or multiple authorizers have charter schools that outperform states with single authorizers. The only discernible difference between single and multiple authorizer states is that the latter have more charter schools.
One detriment of more charters from multiple authorizers is the potential incoherence in the local system. Maryland’s constitution calls for a thorough and efficient system of education. Local school systems have the front line responsibility for delivering on that promise. That’s why, when a local charter fails, the local system picks up the children.
Charters are not substitutes for broader proven reforms. In fact, chartering is not an education reform. It’s merely a change in governance. A charter law doesn’t deal with the hard and often costly slog of real reform. We know from research and experience what works to build schools with thriving students:
•High standards;
•Quality teachers;
•Prekindergarten for 3 year olds;
•Lower class sizes through the third grade;
•Attacking concentrated poverty through community schools; after school programs; more instruction time for students who struggle; home visitation programs; and high quality child care.
Let’s do what we know works.
David W. Hornbeck was Maryland State Superintendent of Schools from 1976 to 1988 and Philadelphia Superintendent from 1994 to 2000). His email is dhornbeck1@comcast.net.
This was originally posted in EdWeek on March 4, 2015 written by Matthew Muench
Is innovation losing its luster? Critiques of the ubiquitous “disruptive innovation” theory—in the pages of The New Yorker (June 23, 2014) and elsewhere—have led some to wonder. Growing use of quotation marks around the word innovation, and the eye-rolling its use can sometimes provoke, reflect not only its overuse, but also a dawning reality: What we call “innovation” often lacks substance and sometimes works to our detriment, not our betterment.
There are good reasons for educators to heed these criticisms. We’ve seen too much innovation-for-innovation’s-sake. Countless would-be innovators offer products and services that look shiny and cool—and lay claim to “disruptive” potential—but fail to solve any real problems for educators or learners. Moreover, these offerings often reek of arrogance about the challenge of engendering meaningful learning, and are overwhelming in the numbers with which they bombard educators.
Let me offer a path to redemption: Employ the science of learning, and focus on building the personal skills that will shape school, work, and life outcomes.
Start with what the science says about how people acquire, retain, and use knowledge and skills, and build new technologies or models grounded in that science. Most do not do this. Investors pumping hundreds of millions into educational technology every quarter seldom ask about the extent to which learning science was used in design. As developers sprint to build the latest and greatest, they rarely pause to ask what the research suggests about whether another animation and explosion sound is likely to aid or to hinder learning. It’s a shame how many beautiful products or intriguing new education models are doomed to ineffectiveness for ignoring what is known about how people learn.
—iStockphoto
In fairness, the market hasn’t demanded this: Procurement processes in schools generally lack the sophistication to consider the match between design and science, or to require validated demonstration of effectiveness. Right now, a large sales force, an existing contract, and an installed base of products tend to win the day.
There is growing recognition, however, that philanthropic and other efforts to help schools should focus more on building capacity in procurement, adoption, and use of new technologies. And as the market becomes more sophisticated, providers of learning-science-based products will win. They would be wise to get ahead of this curve.
Entrepreneurs should start with reflection: What do we know about working memory and cognitive load? What does the literature say about when to guide a learner and when a learner should have autonomy? How much have we thought about contextualization? Metacognition? What are the likely “decay” rates of the knowledge our product helps people learn, and how does our strategy to reduce this loss draw on research? Do we provide learners with feedback? And is its timing, nature, and specificity based on research? And do we test and refine the design to maximize effectiveness?
There are signs that the field is moving in this more careful, questioning direction. Last year, leaders of several universities, as well as Google, Microsoft, edX, Coursera, and other companies, formed the Global Learning Council to work on unlocking the power of learning science and technology to improve student outcomes. There is a growing sense that education technology hasn’t delivered on its promises, and the most obvious way to turn cool experiences into quality experiences is to use learning science to improve design.
“It’s a shame how many beautiful products or intriguing new education models are doomed to ineffectiveness for ignoring what is known about how people learn.”
There are many resources out there, but one accessible way for educational innovators to get started is to read books such as Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age: Using Learning Science to Reboot Schooling, by Frederick M. Hess and Bror Saxberg.
Second, design offerings to help learners acquire the personal skills so critical to shaping success in learning, work, and life. These are variously called soft skills, noncognitive factors, dispositions, attributes, behaviors, employability skills, and so on. But, following the National Research Council, I prefer the specificity of “interpersonal” and “intrapersonal” skills.
The importance of these skills is reflected in the current buzz about grit, perseverance, and academic mind-sets, a field of thought associated with Angela Duckworth, Paul Tough, Carol Dweck, and others. But it isn’t just buzz. The field has focused in on a set of skills that determine success in many contexts. The interpersonal skills include communication, collaboration, and relationship management. The intrapersonal skills—which arguably shape everything else—include conscientiousness, self-regulation, self-efficacy and growth mind-set, metacognition, and perseverance.
This isn’t to diminish the importance and difficulty of helping students acquire essential cognitive skills and content knowledge. But research indicates that these ultimately are not enough to ensure college and career success, if the individual lacks the ability and disposition to activate and make use of them in different contexts.
In my dream, every ed-tech product and new school model brought into the world would be intentional in developing some of these interpersonal and intrapersonal skills among its targeted learners. When teaching algebra, for example, also build metacognition. In a science curriculum, promote a growth mind-set and self-efficacy. And do all of this based on the best scientific understanding about what these skills involve and how they can be developed.
Admittedly, there is less clarity about how to do this—at scale—than there is about what the skills are and that they’re important. Yet that in itself presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs to design new approaches and bring something truly valuable to the market. Addressing this challenge would allow education innovators to have a transformative impact on individuals, communities, and society, and could make educational technology a force to help break cycles of poverty. I say that without hyperbole.
So what should education innovators do? They should follow two lodestars: learning science as central to the design of new learning technologies or learning models, and personal-success skills as targeted outcomes from any new learning tool or model. This will help maximize the positive impact of new ideas on the lives of learners. And, as a bonus, it can help restore the credibility of education “innovation.”
Matthew Muench is a program officer at the Joyce Foundation, in Chicago, where he focuses on new approaches to helping children and adults acquire the skills and credentials needed for success in learning. His twitter account is @mmuench. The Joyce Foundation helps support Education Week’s coverage of the teaching profession.
Students in most Minnesota charter schools are failing to hit learning targets and are not achieving adequate academic growth, according to a Star Tribune analysis of school performance data.
The analysis of 128 of the state’s 157 charter schools show that the gulf between the academic success of its white and minority students widened at nearly two-thirds of those schools last year. Slightly more than half of charter schools students were proficient in reading, dramatically worse than traditional public schools, where 72 percent were proficient.
Between 2011 and 2014, 20 charter schools failed every year to meet the state’s expectations for academic growth each year, signaling that some of Minnesota’s most vulnerable students had stagnated academically.
A top official with the Minnesota Department of Education says she is troubled by the data, which runs counter to “the public narrative” that charter schools are generally superior to public schools.
“We hear, as we should, about the highfliers and the schools that are beating the odds, but I think we need to pay even more attention to the schools that are persistently failing to meet expectations,” said Charlene Briner, the Minnesota Department of Education’s chief of staff. Charter school advocates strongly defend their performance. They say the vast majority of schools that aren’t showing enough improvement serve at-risk populations, students who are poor, homeless, with limited English proficiency, or are in danger of dropping out.
“Our students, they’re coming from different environments, both home and school, where they’ve never had the chance to be successful,” said April Harrison, executive director of LoveWorks Academy, a Minneapolis charter school that has the state’s lowest rating. “No one has ever taken the time to say, ‘What’s going on with you? How can I help you?’ That’s what we do.”
Minnesota is the birthplace of the charter school movement and a handful of schools have received national acclaim for their accomplishments, particularly when it comes to making strong academic gains with low-income students of color. But the new information is fueling critics who say the charter school experiment has failed to deliver on teaching innovation.
“Schools promised they were going to help turn around things for these very challenging student populations,” said Kyle Serrette, director of education for the New York City-based Center for Popular Democracy. “Now, here we are 20 years later and they’re realizing that they have the same troubles of public schools systems.”
More than half of schools analyzed from 2011 to 2014 were also failing to meet the department’s expectations for academic growth, the gains made from year to year in reading and math.
Of the 20 schools that failed to meet the state goals for improvement every year, Pillsbury United Communities is the authorizer for six of those schools: Dugsi Academy, LoveWorks Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, Connections Academy, Learning for Leadership Charter School, and the Minnesota Transitions Charter School’s elementary, Connections Academy and Virtual High School. Those schools also missed annual achievement gap targets.
Officials with the Urban Institute for Service and Learning, which oversees Pillsbury’s charters, say most of their schools cater to students at risk of dropping out, those who have been kicked out of other schools, and many who are learning to speak English.
“We intentionally work with students that most other people would really not want to work with,” said Antonio Cardona, director of the institute.
Two years ago, Pillsbury closed Quest Academy, a small St. Louis Park charter school that consistently failed to meet state performance goals.
Cardona said Pillsbury would consider closing more chronically low-performing schools, or more likely, adopt new turnaround strategies. They also want to add some high-performing schools to their portfolio so that some of their low-performing schools might be able to absorb successful teaching strategies.
At LoveWorks Academy in Minneapolis, about 85 percent of the school’s students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. About 13 percent of its students were proficient in math and 12 percent are proficient in reading.
“What success means for me is our students are reaching the top,” Harrison said. “We are going to work until we get there.”
Some charter schools struggle with stability and finding qualified teachers who are the right fit. In one year, about 65 percent of LoveWorks’ teaching staff turned over. Some left on their own accord while others were not offered their job back.
“I think that’s why we’re seeing success now because we have a staff that’s willing to listen and learn and take the coaching,” said Jamar Smith, the school’s arts coordinator.
Just like traditional public schools, the highest-performing charter schools tend to serve students from more affluent families, the analysis shows.
There are some notable exceptions, many of which are noted annually in the Star Tribune’s “Beating the Odds” list, which is a ranking of high-performing schools that serve a large number of poor students. For years, that list has been dominated by charter schools.
“These are schools that have fully utilized the charter school model to do what needs to be done,” Sweeney said. “If a program isn’t working, if a schedule needs to be changed, they have the flexibility to turn on a dime.”
New Millennium Academy, a Minneapolis charter school that serves mostly Hmong students, has hit the state’s benchmarks for improvement every year from 2011 to 2014. In 2013, it was designated a Celebration school, one of the state’s top school designations.
Amy Erickson, the school’s director of teaching and learning, said the school’s improvement is due to a focused effort to help its students who are learning to speak English — about 85 percent of New Millennium’s enrollment.
Among the ways the school has done that is through data-driven instruction. New Millennium tests its students about every six weeks to see how they’re doing. Those who need extra help receive it in small groups.
“Many of our parents don’t read or write English,” said Yee Yang, the school’s executive director. “So we have meetings where we just talk about the importance of education. We want to make sure they’re focused on that, too.”
In recent years, Minnesota has increased its scrutiny of charter schools, particularly organizations that authorize them. Starting in 2015, the state will begin evaluating authorizers. An unsatisfactory rating means an authorizer would lose the ability to create new schools.
The legislative effort has revealed a rift between differing charter groups.
Charter School Partners is supporting legislation that would make it easier for authorizers to close schools that perform poorly.
“We think it’s an inoculation for our charter community,” said Brian Sweeney, Charter School Partners’ director of public affairs.
The Minnesota Association of Charter Schools, which represents about half the state’s charter schools, will oppose any legislative efforts that give authorizers more authority to close low-performing schools.
“It’s the teachers and principals who have a much more direct impact on student achievement,” said Eugene Piccolo, the association’s director. “Not the authorizers.”
Instead, the association is throwing its efforts behind legislative proposals it believes might help level the financial playing field between charters and traditional public schools.
A recent report commissioned by Charter School Partners shows that Minneapolis Public Schools receives about 31 percent more in funding per pupil than the average Minneapolis charter school. St. Paul Public Schools receives about 24 percent more per pupil.
Charter school supporters say the model continues to evolve.
“Twenty years ago when charters began in Minnesota, it was 1,000 flowers blooming. Let’s experiment. Let’s innovate. Let’s see what works” Sweeney said. “Nobody ever thought it was to have schools last forever that are failing. So there’s a national move to improve the sector and I think we need to do that here in Minnesota.”
In the lead-up to the State of the Union next Tuesday, President Obama’s been traveling across the country unveiling some of the ideas he’ll be talking about in the address.
“Since I’ve only got two years left in the job, I tend to be impatient and I didn’t wait to wait for the State of the Union to start sharing my plans,” the President quipped at the top of his remarks.
“If we’re going to be connected, then we need to be protected.”
In today’s world, we’re exchanging more and more sensitive information online — we’re managing our bank accounts, paying bills, handling medical records, and even controlling our homes from our smartphones. But as the President made clear today, the ability to do all of this online poses additional risks:
Major companies get hacked; America’s personal information, including financial information, gets stolen. And the problem is growing, and it costs us billions of dollars. In one survey, 9 out of 10 Americans say they feel like they’ve lost control of their personal information. In recent breaches, more than 100 million Americans have had their personal data compromised, like credit card information. When these cyber criminals start racking up charges on your card, it can destroy your credit rating. It can turn your life upside down. It may take you months to get your finances back in order.
“This is a direct threat to the economic security of American families, and we’ve got to stop it,” President Obama said. “If we’re going to be connected, then we need to be protected.”
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on protecting consumers and families in the digital age, at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
New actions to protect identities and privacy
The President announced a number of new steps today to safeguard Americans’ identities and privacy:
1. We’re introducing legislation to create a single, national standard protecting Americans from identity theft.
Right now, almost every state has a different law on this, and it’s confusing for consumers and it’s confusing for companies — and it’s costly, too, to have to comply to this patchwork of laws. Sometimes, folks don’t even find out their credit card information has been stolen until they see charges on their bill, and then it’s too late. So under the new standard that we’re proposing, companies would have to notify consumers of a breach within 30 days. In addition, we’re proposing to close loopholes in the law so we can go after more criminals who steal and sell the identities of Americans — even when they do it overseas.
2. More banks, credit card issuers, and lenders are giving customers free access to their credit scores.
This includes JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, USAA, State Employees’ Credit Union, Ally Financial. Some of them are here today. I want to thank them for their participation. This means that a majority of American adults will have free access to their credit score, which is like an early warning system telling you that you’ve been hit by fraud so you can deal with it fast. And we’re encouraging more companies to join this effort every day.
3. We’re also introducing a new Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.
Working with many of you — from the private sector and advocacy groups — we’ve identified some basic principles to both protect personal privacy and ensure that industry can keep innovating.
For example, we believe that consumers have the right to decide what personal data companies collect from them and how companies use that data, that information; the right to know that your personal information collected for one purpose can’t then be misused by a company for a different purpose; the right to have your information stored securely by companies that are accountable for its use. We believe that there ought to be some basic baseline protections across industries.
So we’re going to be introducing this legislation by the end of next month, and I hope Congress joins us to make the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights the law of the land.
4. We’re working to protect our children’s personal information and privacy online.
Today, we’re proposing the Student Digital Privacy Act. That’s pretty straightforward. We’re saying that data collected on students in the classroom should only be used for educational purposes — to teach our children, not to market to our children. We want to prevent companies from selling student data to third parties for purposes other than education. We want to prevent any kind of profiling that outs certain students at a disadvantage as they go through school.
And we believe that this won’t just give parents more peace of mind. We’re confident that it will make sure the tools we use in the classroom will actually support the breakthrough research and innovations that we need to keep unlocking new educational technologies.
“We pioneered the Internet, but we also pioneered the Bill of Rights, and a sense that each of us as individuals have a sphere of privacy around us that should not be breached, whether by our government, but also by commercial interests,” the President said. “And since we’re pioneers in both these areas, I’m confident that we can be pioneers in crafting the kind of architecture that will allow us to both grow, innovate, and preserve those values that are so precious to us as Americans.”
To evaluate PD Systems, we created a framework to capture the ways that professional learning is supported at the district level. It has five categories: Recruit and Retain, Manage, Teach, Instructional Support and Evaluate. These categories form a cycle that districts are constantly operating and maintaining. Teachers can be at many different stages within this cycle and sometimes are within multiple stages at one time. Some districts might choose one product to support the entire cycle, while others may choose a combination of products to support various professional learning needs. As districts look to technology to improve efficiency and increase capacity, our hope is that they will be able to find the right tools for the right purpose, whether it is a technology tool or not.
Each product falls into one or more parts of this cycle. The tables below are designed to help school leaders find the right products to provide the best support for teachers, while also illustrating how different products could be combined to cover a complete cycle of learning management and delivery.
Recruit and Retain
These systems support recruiting, hiring, tracking and managing qualifications or compensation, and most importantly, figuring out ways to build capacity amongst the staff districts already have. Often times, these systems are paired with Evaluation tools to help track and evaluate performance.
For Principals, District Leaders, HR Leaders, Applicants
An external website that helps districts create their own recruitment webpage, facilitate hiring online, track and rate applicants for smooth and collaborative hiring process
A document tracker that allows principals and HR leaders to easily keep track of hiring documentation in one place, through the use of checklists with due dates and reminders for each step in the paperwork process
A tool that helps districts create a jobs board on their own recruitment homepage, with custom job applications, filtering and interview scheduling process for easy hiring with high volume of applicants
Recruit
Manage
These systems are the heartbeat of the professional learning world. They help manage content and learning plans. These systems enable districts to manage and track enrollment, create courses, and track credits and activities. For teachers, these systems empower them to assess needs, set goals, create learning plans and find the right resources to meet their needs. Often times, they are paired with Delivery tools or Evaluation tools that can help guide which content a teacher should use next.
A PD Management system that helps district leaders track their own resources, create learning paths for teachers to follow and chronicle who’s taken which courses, whether online or in person
A tracking tool for districts to track teacher’s PD activities from multiple sources, such as LMSs or PD delivery platforms, all in one place. Teachers can create PD plans and then track the hours they spend on their learning
For Teachers, Principals, District Leaders, Edu Agencies
A course catalogue creation tool that allows education agencies to share their courses, and integrate their catalogue with districts to give teachers more content choices so teachers have more content to choose from
PD flexible learning management tool that districts can use to track content, assess learning, track reflections and credits for both formal and informal learning activities
Professional development and human resource tools for K-12 districts to build new skills and track data on professional growth
Recruit
Manage
Evaluate
Teach
These are systems that fall into our original PD Learning Cycle: Engage, Teach, Instructional Support, and Measure. They support learning directly and go beyond curated content libraries. These systems deliver courses, provide teachers with social engagement tools, and coaching or mentoring tools.
For Teachers, Principals, Coaches, District Leaders
A bank of videos, online courses, and educational resources that teachers can use to observe best practices and reflect on how to implement in their own classrooms
An eReading application that supports interactive learning experiences such as communicating with the author, uploading materials to the book’s community and connecting with fellow readers
A video-based training that helps principals and coaches practice observing teachers via video so that they can develop consistant observation and evaluation techniques
Management system that provides a catalogue of courses including videos of best practices, communities of practice, tools for observation and evaluation, and talent management
Manage
Teach
Evaluate
Instructional Support
Instructional Support systems combine professional learning with tools that support teachers, immediate needs in the classroom, specifically around lesson planning and assessment data. These systems scaffold their work so that learning moments can be included. They are generally associated with Delivery tools.
Adaptive social network and online learning platform that tracks teacher behavior and makes recommendations for content and connections based on ongoing behavior
Data collection and reporting tool that helps teachers create their own assessments or choose from a bank of assessments; it also helps them administer assessments and find scaffolded teaching resources related to the results
Support
Evaluate
While often associated with Manage or Recruit & Retain tools, Evaluate tools are used to support the process of evaluating or measuring a teacher’s practice. They support the observation process and multi-measurement evaluations.
Platform that helps teachers set goals and administrators track observation data. It also connects to auto recommendations and to third party resources
A platform for administrators to create custom observation templates, track teacher observations and create final evaluations including multiple forms of evidence
Administrator tool to schedule observations, track all the steps in the process and create final cumulative performance scores using various forms of data
A planning tool that helps administrators make annual observation plans, record observation results and report those results back teachers and the district
Interface for managing data associated with classroom walkthroughs, observations and teacher performance evaluations, as well as a resource bank and source for coaching groups
Interested in seeing- at a glance- which zoos and aquariums are using social media (or were by November 20, 2010 at least)? Check out this awesome spreadsheet created by Anthony Brown of the San Francisco Zoo. It lists which zoos and aquariums are using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube, as well as basic engagement stats.
Check out some of the classic, creative, charming, and kooky ways that zoos and aquariums are using social technology to make waves in their communities and beyond:
2. Facebook. 7% of all humans are on Facebook and zoos and aquariums are effectively using this space to cultivate networks, create interaction, and share information. The Tennessee Aquarium always surprises me with cool facts in my Facebook news feed.
3. Flickr. Holy cow! If there’s one social media platform in which zoos and aquariums are taking the lead, it’s on Flickr. When asked (in a survey I crafted in collaboration with AZA), many zoos and aquariums reported Flickr initiatives as their most innovative uses of social technology. My favorite straight-up use of Flickr? That’s a toughie… but the Shedd Aquarium’sFlickr group is up there.
4. YouTube. There’s so much good stuff here, too. Zoos and Aquariums are mostly using this site to help them give visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the institution. I like the San Diego Zoo’sYouTube channel.
5. Website. Have you noticed that many of the biggest and most visited zoos and aquariums feature links to social media pages above the fold on their websites (even if it’s small)?
6. Interactive Pages. Many zoos and aquariums are putting their web-based social and educational resources in one place. Check out the New England Aquarium’s awesome interaction page.
8. Mobile Applications. These ones by the Woodland Park Zoo, the Memphis Zoo, and the Dallas Zoo aim to make the visitor experience as comfortable as possible by providing basic information on the zoo and the exhibits. They even feature GPS so you can figure out how to get to your favorite animals.
9. Foursquare. Remember to check in when you visit the Sacramento Zoo. You’ll be rewarded with a free carousel ticket- and the mayor gets a free gift.
10. Virtual Conferences. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums is on top of creating engaging webinars that allow zoo and aquarium professionals to connect and share stories online. Couldn’t make it to the AZA Annual Conference in Houston? No worries.
11. Podcasts. The Aquarium of the Pacific’s (for instance) podcasts share information about the aquarium as well as news and information about issues facing our oceans and our planet. It’s music to an audible learner’s ears.
But that’s not even close to the end of it. Prepare to be inspired… and learn a thing or two about sea creatures, four-legged friends, the environment, and everything in between…
Storytelling and Online Engagement
12. It’s a boy! This baby gorilla was abandoned by its mother, and then had to be raised by hand and trained with a surrogate mother at the San Fransisco Zoo. The sensitive situation meant months of no on-site press. But it was no problem for the zoo. They captured the baby gorilla’s pertinent milestones on video. Everything was filmed and edited internally, uploaded on the Zoo’s YouTube channel and then distributed to the press. It worked beautifully and the press used these video links on their own Web sites and in print. Broadcasters pointed viewers and listeners to the YouTube channel and also aired them during newscasts.
13. Talk about streaming cuteness. The Knoxville Zoo’s creative partnership with the Mozilla Foundation raised awareness of endangered species through a 24 hour live stream of two red pandas (firefoxes). Their names, Ember and Spark, were determined by online voters. I cannot lie: sometimes I open this tab on my browser and check-in throughout the day. It’s that cute. (Please don’t judge…)
14. Meet Essex Ed. Turtle Back Zoo’s resident groundhog, Essex Ed, took over the Zoo’s twitter account during the month of February, expanding his prognostication prowess beyond winter weather predictions. Look out @SUEtheTrex & @NatHistoryWhale.This furry futurist was quite charming (even if his lovable predictions weren’t always correct).
15. Turning print materials into links. The National Aquarium transcends the divide between printed materials and the web by using QR codes on printed materials that link to their YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr accounts.
16. Information share within the industry. Impactful nonprofits share their knowledge with others. That’s basically what the San Fransisco Zoo is doing in this video. One thing that I think is cool/important: the zoo doesn’t just leave twitter to the marketing department. They know that many departments should be at least a bit involved.
18. Going Meta. The Shedd Aquarium makes celebrating Flickr and Facebook fan engagement through Facebook look easy with their Fan Photo of the Week. They encourage Facebook users to tag themselves in photos in order to vote for their favorite. It’s a genius voting system. When folks tag themselves to vote, it often shows up the newsfeed for people in their networks, spreading the initiative.
19. Live tweeting… from the ocean? The Birch Aquarium at Scripps took the middle-man out of education-based communication when they created a Twitter account specifically for whale-watching season. Their Naturalists tweet live from the boat!
20. Apes, Elephants, Pandas- oh my! The San Diego Zoo invites you to live stream their apes, elephants, pandas and polar bears! And while you’re on the site, try your hand at the Elephant Odyssey Game.
21. No photographer wants to be photo-bombed by strangers. The Aquarium of the Pacific takes Flickr photo contests to another level and uses it to bring folks in the door. They created regular Photography Nights in which photographers (and photographers-in-training) are welcome to take pictures without worrying about the general public.
23. We advise you to visit the aquarium. Got a good rating on Trip Advisor thanks to great visitor service efforts? Flaunt it. Word of mouth marketing is thought be to the most trusted and effective form of marketing. Take a lesson from the Oregon Coast Aquarium: link to your ratings on Trip Advisor and make sure folks know how much your visitors love it.
24. Know your assets! In this case, it’s a Great White Shark. Kind of. I dare you to take a look at this Flickr album of enthusiastic visitors to Birch Aquarium at Scripps, and tell me you don’t want to take a picture with this shark.
25. Because “Fluffy’s Daughter” is a bad name for a baby python. And the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium knew it was a lame name, so they called in help from their community. Their naming contest on Facebook resulted in thousands of submissions and 1,200 original names, which were narrowed to five and placed back on Facebook for voting. Talk about well received; more than 500 people voted in the first 20 minutes and the zoo significantly boosted their “likes” on Facebook! (Spoiler: The name “Hanna” won with 816 votes)
26. The good ole’ ‘Fun Fact’ route never goes out of style. Rosamond Gifford Zoo tweets healthy doses of “Today’s Wild Wisdom,” by popular demand from their online community. A little bit (more) proof that social media works best when educational or exciting information is shared… and not just used as an announcement board for holiday closures.
29. Cell phone audio guides are a classic. At the Florida Aquarium, kids can listen to birds, fish, alligators, and otters through a cell phone audio guide.
30. State lines are for dummies. The Columbus Zoo offers special distance learning classes to K-12 kids across the country. The program “brings the zoo to you” using standard audio/video teleconferencing equipment.
Fundraising, Working the Market, and Strategic Uses of Social Media
31. Mobile devices= tools for donations. The Cameron Park Zoo launched a mobile giving campaign, which allows guests to donate $5 or $10 via text message. .
32. Making fundraising social with new tools. The Museum of Science in Boston uses Fundrazr, a social fundraising tool, to raise funds. In fact, the museum has raised over $2500 for the renovation of the Charles Hayden Planetarium exclusively through its network of online followers.
33. Meet the parents. The Knoxville Zoo knows who makes up a big part of their market- and they utilize a local online social resource called knoxmoms.com to connect with parents in the area.
34. Zoos vs. Aquariums: Who does it better? The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium is already rocking the contests tab on their Facebook page to engage audiences- but one of their greatest contests featured a friendly race that pitted them against the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, IA. The race was to see which one–Aquarium or Zoo–could promote their page in order to get the most new likes/fans for their respective Facebook page by the end of the contest on October 31, 2010. It was close, but in the end, the aquarium lost and had to do a full day of “dirty jobs” for the zoo. But both organizations were winners in the end because of the increase in fans resulting from the competition. The Aquarium increased it’s Facebook fan base by 283%!
35. A collaboration to strengthen community. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo partnered with the Division 1 college hockey team in town, the Tigers, to promote both partners’ community-strengthening missions. They agreed to publicize for one another through their social media channels. In exchange, the Tigers promoted the zoo by showing video footage of the zoo’s tigers during period breaks, on the concourse, and on TV big screens at games. The zoo and the hockey team also conducted a successful meet-and-greet with players at the zoo, all the while shouting out to one another and publicizing these events through social media.
36. Make it easier for fans to give. In celebration of National Adoption Day, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo did a two-day promotion in which they significantly discounted their Adopt-an-Animal program. They created a custom package that was smaller than a traditional package (and therefore less expensive for us to produce). The result? An easy way to make an additional $350 for the program while getting the word out and giving their online community a sense of special perks.
37. Don’t forget gift shop sales! Folks at Clyde Peelings Reptiland say that Facebook is their favorite way to promote new items in their gift shop.
38. Tapping social technology for active feedback. The first step in evolving in order to best need visitor needs is to know what those needs are. By listening to audiences on social media, organizations can learn a lot about those needs- but the Brevard Zoo is taking an even more direct approach. They created research site that asks visitors how the museum can improve. The site allows them to get active feedback, create focus groups, and engage in private forums.
Do you know of any zoos and aquariums utilizing social technology to engage audiences in ways that aren’t mentioned here? Share them in the comments section and add them to the list!
One of the most distressing characteristics of education reformers is that they are hyper-focused on how students perform, but they ignore how students learn. Nowhere is this misplaced emphasis more apparent, and more damaging, than in kindergarten.
A new University of Virginia study found that kindergarten changed in disturbing ways from 1999-2006. There was a marked decline in exposure to social studies, science, music, art and physical education and an increased emphasis on reading instruction. Teachers reported spending as much time on reading as all other subjects combined.
The time spent in child-selected activity dropped by more than one-third. Direct instruction and testing increased. Moreover, more teachers reported holding all children to the same standard.
How can teachers hold all children to the same standards when they are not all the same? They learn differently, mature at different stages – they just are not all the same especially at the age of 4-6.
Is this drastic shift in kindergarten the result of a transformation in the way children learn? No! A 2011 nationwide study by the Gesell Institute for Child Development found that the ages at which children reach developmental milestones have not changed in 100 years.
For example, the average child cannot perceive an oblique line in a triangle until age 5 ½. This skill is a prerequisite to recognizing, understanding and writing certain letters. The key to understanding concepts such as subtraction and addition is “number conservation.” A child may be able to count five objects separately but not understand that together they make the number five. The average child does not conserve enough numbers to understand subtraction and addition until 5½ or 6.
If we teach reading, writing, subtraction and addition before children are ready, they might memorize these skills, but will they will not learn or understand them. And it will not help their achievement later on.
Child development experts understand that children must learn what their brains are ready to absorb. Kindergarten is supposed to set the stage for learning academic content when they are older. If they are going to push our kindergarten children to move faster, what does that say for the push for “educating” Pre-K?
Play is essential in kindergarten – in fact in any child under the age of 5. Through play, children build literacy skills they need to be successful readers. By speaking to each other in socio-dramatic play, children use the language they heard adults read to them or say. This process enables children to find the meaning in those words.
There is a wide range of acceptable developmental levels in kindergarten; so a fluid classroom enables teachers to observe where each child is and adjust the curriculum accordingly.
Two major studies confirmed the value of play vs. teaching reading skills to young children. Both compared children who learned to read at 5 with those who learned at 7 and spent their early years in play-based activities. Those who read at 5 had no advantage. Those who learned to read later had better comprehension by age 11, because their early play experiences improved their language development.
Yet current educational policy banishes play in favor of direct instruction of inappropriate academic content and testing; practices that are ineffective for young children.
The No Child Left Behind Law played a major role in changing kindergarten. Upper-grade curricula were pushed down in a mistaken belief that by learning reading skills earlier, children would fare better on standardized tests. Subjects not tested by NCLB were de-emphasized. Lawmakers insisted that standardized tests assess reading at earlier ages, even though standardized tests are invalid for children under 8.
These changes have the harshest effect on our most vulnerable children. The UVA study found that in schools with the highest percentage of children of color and children eligible for free-and-reduced-priced lunch, teachers had the most demanding expectations for student performance.
To make matters worse, the drafters of the Common Core ignored the research on child development. In 2010, 500 child development experts warned the drafters that the standards called for exactly the kind of damaging practices that inhibit learning: direct instruction, inappropriate academic content and testing.
These warnings went unheeded.
Consequently, the Common Core exacerbates the developmentally inappropriate practices on the rise since NCLB. Teachers report having to post the standards in the room before every scripted lesson, as if 5-year-olds can read or care what they say. They time children adding and subtracting, and train them to ask formulaic questions about an “author’s message.” All children are trained in the exact same skill at the same time. One teacher lamented that “there is no more time for play.” Another wrote “these so-called educational leaders have no idea how children learn.”
It may satisfy politicians to see children perform inappropriately difficult tasks like trained circus animals. However, if we want our youngest to actually learn, we will demand the return of developmentally appropriate kindergarten.
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on protecting consumers and families in the digital age, at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
