Rss Feed
Tweeter button
Facebook button
Technorati button
Reddit button
Linkedin button
Webonews button
Delicious button
Digg button
Flickr button
Stumbleupon button
Newsvine button
Youtube button

Articles Comments

SchoolSpring » Archive

MEDIA SPONGES

Anya Kamenetz’s article in FastCompany titled, “A Is for App: How Smartphones, Handheld Computers Sparked an Educational Revolution,” she brings up a few reasons why media was bad, can be good, and why it was considered awful to the world’s future generations. Early in the article it states: “American children now spend 7.5 hours a day absorbing and creating media — as much time as they spend in school.” A decade ago, this was seen as a bad thing. Out of these technology-obsessed, media absorbing, inactive kids—experts and parents alike saw no value in the rise and use of technology among their children.  Less time spent on homework and minimal time outside was a cause for concern, but within the past few years, handheld, technological devices have re-established … Read entire article »

Filed under: Books, Future of Education, technology in education

No child left behind… in the United States of… Finland? What happened to America?

The American educational system is based on fair and equal educational gain among all students in the classroom. It is thought that by changing classrooms each year, a student will progress further.  It is also thought that this system will enhance a child’s way of learning by being surrounded among a variety of students each year with various skills and strengths. This however, is not the belief in Finland, where the curriculum is relaxed, children are honored among classmates for their academic strengths and helped with their weaknesses in the same classroom. Finnish children grow together, in the same classroom, with the same teacher for the first 5-7 years of their education while many American schools tend to separate students with weakness from the stronger students in specific subjects like reading, … Read entire article »

Filed under: curriculum, Future of Education, size of schools, Teacher motivation, Teacher skills

Framework for Teaching Not Quite Enough

Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching is, according to ASCD, “a benchmark for thousands of school systems and educators around the world.” Popularized in her 1996 book, Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching (1996, 2007).The Framework for Teaching is “a research-based set of components of instruction…grounded in a constructivist view of learning and teaching” in which the act of teaching is broken down into 22 components. Danielson identifies several purposes for the Framework, emphasizing its value in promoting professional conversations among teachers. Most commonly, however, it appears to this educator that her construct is being used as a foundation for teacher evaluation. While no doubt a powerful structure for analyzing and assessing the main facets of what teachers do, the Framework does not quite get to the core of … Read entire article »

Filed under: Books, curriculum, Future of Education, Rick Detwiler, Teacher motivation, Teacher skills

President of SchoolSpring, Jim Fitzpatrick Speaks with Ourblook.com on “The Future of Education”

Jim Fitzpatrick on the Future of Education from OurBlook.com on Vimeo. Jim Fitzpatrick … Read entire article »

Filed under: curriculum, Future of Education, high school, Jim Fitzpatrick