Tech-Tonics

28 things to consider when implementing BYOD

By Samuel J. Tan

Technology never stands still and it is becoming increasingly hard for schools to keep up, especially on a limited budget. With the greater push towards 1-to-1 access, schools will need even bigger capital budgets and considerable financial means of sustaining the cost of technology for teaching and learning. This is where a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scheme becomes appealing, especially when most students already have their own devices.

So, what would a school need to consider when implementing BYOD? We list here 28 considerations in three main categories, split in to a) the planning stage, b) implementation strategies and finally c) on-going considerations.

Planning Stage

The planning stage for a scheme such as BYOD is especially key in ensuring the agreement and support of all parties involved. A well-thought out planning stage would certainly go some way in removing frustration and opposition in the implementation phases. So here are the most important considerations as you set out to implement a BYOD scheme.

1. Communication: Start conversations with all stake holders; governors, parents, teachers, students and identify the strengths and weaknesses of BYOD. Obtain feedback, but more importantly be willing to listen to ideas and suggestions and be prepared to answer queries and questions honestly and directly.
2. Funding/Finance: As with all tech-related proposals, the funding and finance can make or break a scheme. Some important questions to consider are: What are the options for the funding of these devices? Would it be wholly funded by parents, partly funded by parents or wholly funded by parents with an opt-out? The latter is a combination of wholly funded or part funded by parents based on co-contribution. If a part fund model is used, ownership of the device at the end of the product’s life cycle must be outlined prior to agreement. Would the school consider leasing or hire purchase?
3. Equality of Access: Some thought will also need to be given to this and consideration given to the costs involved. Schools may have to consider provision for students where parents have opted-out. This may include loan devices for class and/or home use. This is in line with equal access for all students.
4. Technology Choice: With the vast array of devices available in the market place. It is also very important to provide a clear definition of devices allowed on the network. This encompasses the type of devices, operating systems, recommended specifications, additional software including Internet security and antivirus protection. Defining the minimum specifications for student devices be it laptop or tablets will mean that the devices should have similar capabilities allowing them to access learning content in the same or at least very similar ways.
5. Licensing: Managing software licenses will be necessary for essential applications. This will allow students to access these applications under the school’s site license or available to purchase at educational pricing, taking advantage of the school’s bulk purchase discounts
6. Policy: It will be important to have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), communicated to and signed by Students year on year. These policies should outline consequences for not adhering to policy, issues with cyber-bullying, posting of inappropriate materials/comments and other e-safety considerations.
7. Data and Child Protection, Significant consideration will also need to be given to this. Among the students, there will be a need to provide awareness on eSafety, stop sharing of personal information over the Internet, prohibit transmission of photos or videos of other children on campus. Where necessary, some thought will also need to be given to web-filtering, see point 15.
8. End User Agreement: Students and Staff should also sign a “User Agreement” giving school the right to inspect the personal devices if there are reasons to believe that he or she has violated the AUP or other rules and restrictions.
9. Support and Servicing: Where hardware is purchased from retailers, these are usually covered under manufacturer’s warranty for up to a year. Some retailers offer additional cover and support for a fee. It is recommended that such covers be taken for up to 3 years at least, which should be sufficient for the life of the device.
10. Insurance: Recommend that students and parents purchase the necessary insurance cover to protect their investment and consider insuring against theft and accidental damage and to make sure that where possible, devices are listed in the cover.

Implementation Strategies

While many of the items mentioned in the planning stage will undoubtedly spill over to make up part of the implementation strategy, below are some further points which will also need consideration at the next stage of the process.

11. Access Control: It is important that only authorised devices are allowed on the network. These ideally will need to be vetted by the School’s IT department and approved based on a pre-determined criteria (see point 4 above)
12. End Point Security: For security of the school’s IT network it would be logical to make compulsory, Antivirus and Internet security programs and perhaps offer these at reduced rate to students
13. Invest in Infrastructure: A sufficiently robust infrastructure will be required to support the increase in number of devices and traffic
14. Internet Bandwidth: With more devices constantly connected and accessing the Web at the same time, consider increasing the Internet bandwidth by looking at the packages and options available from ISPs.
15. Web Filtering & Caching: A secure and filtered Internet gateway ensures that students have access to only appropriate resources on the Internet. A well-managed web filter allows the school to control the use of bandwidth and to stop bandwidth hogging activities such as file sharing and large file downloads. Local web caching appliances when deployed reduces Internet traffic through pre-fetch and storing of frequently accessed images and files.

On-going Considerations

Once a BYOD scheme is implemented and running, there will be some on-going considerations to ensure the scheme continues to run optimally.

16. Personal Safety: Students need to be told and reminded to take special precautions when in public areas and to keep devices such as tablets and smartphones or any valuables for that matter, out of sight to avoid snatch thieves and other opportunists.
17. Spare Devices: Schools that do run a BYOD scheme will also need to consider loan units for those who cannot afford devices, those who opt out or those who have forgotten their device.
18. Start Out Right: Teachers and school staff should not be required to troubleshoot technical problems in the classroom. Although there will inevitably be instances in which this happens, it should not occur on a frequent enough basis that it disrupts the class. A strong technical support person or team will be necessary to ensure the smooth functioning of all technology in school.
19. Guidelines: Schools will need to provide step-by-step guidelines on connecting own devices to the Internet through the school network.
20. Awareness: Raising an awareness of eSafety and cyber bullying is important to ensure that everyone starts off right. In addition the the Policies and User Agreements (mentioned in 6 and 8), campaigns on E-safety and How to Behave Online would help reinforce these messages.
21. Turn off personal mobile broadband in school: Although potentially difficult to police, other form of access to the Internet would circumvent the in-house Web Filter. Personal WiFi or mobile broadband (3G and 4G) means that students have unrestricted and unfiltered access to the Web. This should be prohibited and potential made a part of the Policy and User Agreements.
22. Training & Professional Development: It is imperative to provide training for teachers in the use of technology in teaching. Appointing technically proficient teachers as facilitators to help train others and share knowledge and good practise, would help keep costs down. It’s easy to switch on and use a device in class but to teach with technology requires a different pedagogical approach (See also The Adoption Model for Technology). Teachers need to be introduced to the use of technology in classroom through training to help them learn how they can embed technology into the curriculum.
23. Storage: Consideration will also need to be given to safe storage of devices, whether this be through lockable trollies, cupboards or personal lockers for students to store their devices when not in use during lunch break or PE.
24. Ground Rules: Define offline times, or when devices are not required as well as when and where they can be used. Teachers can structure their lessons in such a way that there is a block of time when devices need to be switched off or put on sleep mode. If smartphones are allowed, ringers need to be silent and no calls to be taken during school hours.
25. Resources: Key to harnessing technology within the education sphere is the provision of online learning resources, whether this is created in house, bought in, or resourced from the web. Moving towards the use of web based application and services that are compatible across the different devices and moving away from locally installed applications, which may be OS specific, will allow all students regardless of device types access to the resources and content.
26. Plug points to charge device: Mobile devices such as tablets and ultra books are designed for all day computing and therefore should not require charging if students charge them at night. However, there may be occasions when students forget to charge their device or after prolonged use will require charging. Adequate and properly sited plug points will allow students to charge their device safely.
27. Ownership and Care: There is typically a certain lack of care for school property, particularly if it is provided for free. By running a BYOD scheme, the onus of responsibility and care lies with each student to ensure that the device is fit for use. It will help however to provide information on care for devices on the school’s intranet or in print.
28. Learning Platform & Apps: Although this is by no means a crucial element of BYOD, do consider implementing a Learning Platform or Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) if the school has not done so. The Learning Platform or VLE will act as a sort of glue that allows the different mobile devices to work on a common web based platform. Make sure that the Learning Platform complies with web standards and does not require proprietary plugins. Schools may also consider developing in-house Apps to access the learning platform or learning content, making it even more accessible.

Final Thoughts

Successful one to one is not only attributed to strategy and planning on the school’s part, but also to the parents participation and willingness to contribute to the cost of ownership and support.

Similar to BYOD, with the parents paying for their child’s devices including the support of it, the advantage of such a scheme is that the school will have more control over the type of device to go for. This includes the operating system, software licenses, security , insurance cover, and the necessary support arrangements.

A unified device type also means ease of training for both staff and students. Teachers can share tips and best paedagogical practices. Support for staff in the form of professional development is equally important to ensure that everyone is equipped with the essential skills to complete key tasks using these devices.

There must also be a great emphasis on infrastructure, typically the wireless network in the school. As these devices tend to be mobile and requires constant connection to the Internet, the wireless network needs to be robust and capable of supporting a high number of connections and bursts of activities typical of classroom teaching.

While the old model of ICT hardware in schools consisted of networked desktops pre-installed with software for the curriculum. BYOD makes the shift from conventional desktop software to applications based on the web technologies. The VLE will take center stage and teachers will develop their own digital resources for it.

When is enough technology enough?

By Phil Dunn, The Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ)

Researchers are still debating the effects of technology on young children, but while they debate how much is too much, parents seem to have it figured out.

“I think it’s about keeping your children active with other things,” said Cherry Hill, N.J., mom Melissa Marsh. “When it comes down to it, my kids just don’t have time for it.”

Maria Reuter of Marlton, N.J., takes a more pragmatic approach by limiting her children to one or two hours of screen time a day.

“Behavior changes with too much screen time,” she explained. “They can become obsessed with it.”

Studies by the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend parents avoid screen time for children under the age of 2. The organization contends a child’s brain develops rapidly during those early years, and learning is done best by interacting with people, not screens.

Reuter said she and her husband Andy rarely let their 1-year-old son Jake play with the iPad. At most, they will allow him to watch the Disney Channel streamed online while they wait at a restaurant.

“He definitely would play with the iPad, but he has dropped it before so we have to be careful,” added Reuter. “He likes the app where you can push on different animals and hear what sounds they make.”

Marsh said her 6-year-old daughter loves to take video of herself and her friends doing goofy things.

“She’s always asking, ‘Did you get that on video?’ “

According to the AAP, children are now spending an average of seven hours a day on entertainment media, including televisions, computers, phones and other electronic devices.

Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that advocates for child and family issues, studied the effects media and technology have on young users. It found 52 percent of children 8 and under have access to a smartphone, video iPod or tablet.

About 38 percent of children have used one of these devices, including 10 percent of children ages 1 year and younger, 39 percent of 2- to 4-year-olds and more than 50 percent of 5- to 8-year-olds.

But hard research on the long-term effects are still unclear, mostly because devices such as iPads are only a few years old.

“The jury is still out,” said Sarah Vaala, a post-doctoral fellow studying communications at the University of Pennsylvania.

^“A child knows when it pushes the screen it will light up. And when a child sees their parents using the device, it becomes important to them.^”

— Sarah Vaala, University of Pennsylvania post-doctoral fellow

She said the pace of technological growth is pushing researchers to conduct studies faster so their work can inform design.

“What makes tablets different from other studies is the interactive component,” Vaala added.

Many researchers find the ability of devices to respond to the child is what makes them so interesting for young children. Babies are also hard-wired to learn from their parents.

“A child knows when it pushes the screen it will light up,” noted Vaala. “And when a child sees their parents using the device, it becomes important to them.”

Researchers with the AAP say parents should become more aware of their child’s “media diet.” The organization suggests the creation of “screen-free” zones at home, something Marsh supports. Her children do not have televisions, computers or video games in their bedrooms.

“Every night at bedtime, we put everything on the charging mat in the media room,” Marsh said. “Their bedroom is for sleeping.”

Ellen Malven, a doctoral candidate in Childhood Studies at Rutgers-Camden, said parents sometimes deny their children access to new technology because they themselves lack an emotional interaction with the device.

“For them, growing up was going out riding bikes or playing imagination tea party with stuffed animals,” explained Malven, who has conducted research on the effects of iPads on children and preteens.

“They lack that connection with the device.”

But parents like Heather Sponseller of Marlton embrace the technology, citing an educational benefit.

“I feel like schools are going more and more toward electronic books, so it is important to have that basic knowledge,” said Sponseller.

Apple has helped create thousands of educational opportunities for the iPad, iPod and iPhone. Sponseller said there are countless puzzles and vocabulary apps with which her children interact.

Moorestown Children’s School owner Sue Maloney said Apple devices help children learn new language, math and literacy skills.

“We use them in conjunction with teaching opportunities; there is no gaming or television,” added Maloney, who said kids also can use the devices as a reference tool.

“If they don’t know the answer to something, instead of the teacher telling them, they can look it up.”

But researchers from the AAP argue if screen time is not monitored, a child can become isolated from the world around him or her. Malven warned parents not to let the devices become “digital pacifiers.”

“It’s not different from TV — the device is just portable,” she insisted.

Sponseller believes in limiting her children’s time on electronic devices, but sees no problem with using them as entertainment.

“Sometimes you just need a break.”

Computers can’t replace real teachers

Even though this blog is about the promotion and discussion of education technology, I agree 100 percent….

By Wendy Kopp, CEO of Teach for All, and a founding member of Teach for America

(CNN) – Tech visionary Steve Jobs understood better than anyone the impulse to believe that technology can solve our most complex societal problems. “Unfortunately it just ain’t so,” he said. ”We need to attack these things at the root, which is people and how much freedom we give people. … I wish it was as simple as giving it over to the computer.”

That’s certainly true when it comes to education, particularly in impoverished communities.

As a founder of two organizations that recruit top college graduates to expand educational opportunity, I’ve spent a lot of time examining what’s at work in successful classrooms and schools over the past two decades. In every classroom where students are excelling against the odds, there’s a teacher who’s empowered her students to work hard to realize their potential. Whenever I ask the leaders of successful schools their secret, the answer is almost always the same: people, people, people. They are obsessed with recruiting and developing the best teams.

Research confirms that great teachers change lives. Students with one highly effective elementary school teacher are more likely to go to college, less likely to become pregnant as teens and earn tens of thousands more over their lifetimes. Faced with the choice between giving every child in a school his or her own laptop or putting 30 of them in a classroom with one exceptional teacher, there’s no question which is the better investment.

So it’s disappointing to see more and more people herald technology as an educational panacea while dismissing the indispensable role of people.

In a recent article on this site, Richard Galant asked whether we’d be better off ditching teachers, giving kids computers and leaving them to their own devices to teach themselves and each other. The idea is based on the work of Sugata Mitra, an education professor who set up an experiment in India where he gave children in the slums access to a “computer in the wall” and found that without guidance, they were soon using it to learn on their own.

I’ve spent a lot of time examining what’s at work in successful classrooms and schools … In every classroom where students are excelling against the odds, there’s a teacher who’s empowered her students to work hard to realize their potential.

Galant’s piece could leave the impression that teachers are obsolete and that their main function is to enforce discipline and administer tests. (Instead of spending money on teachers, Mitra recruits cheerleading “grannies,” older women from the UK who offer the kids words of praise and encouragement via Skype.)

The idea that computers can ever replace teachers and schools reveals a deep lack of understanding about the role leadership plays in student success.

When Anam Palla started teaching ninth and 10th grades at an all-girls school in Pakistan, her students were performing four years behind grade level and many considered themselves nalaiq (incapable). She set a mission that each of her girls would gain the skills and self-confidence to become contributing members of society.

“My first task was to build a sense of responsibility in the girls towards their own learning and success, which would be achieved by collaborating with other members of the class and the community at large,” she says. Today, here students are not only thriving academically, they are empowered and independent young women.

Now, I’m no Luddite. Technology has enormous potential to address educational needs more efficiently, help teachers improve their performance and enrich and individualize student learning. Indeed, in places such as India that face massive underserved populations and a shortage of qualified teachers, it’s hard to imagine making a dent without leveraging technology in a big way.

But we must be wary of concluding that we should focus our energy on technology rather than people.

Computers cannot create a culture of excellence and push students to meet high expectations.

Computers cannot visit students’ homes to get to know their families and engage them in their progress.

Computers cannot raise money and organize college visits to show students who have never left their communities what they’re working toward.

Technology is a tool, not a silver bullet. And like all tools, it can be helpful or harmful depending on how we use them.

Rocketship Education, a high-performing charter network that serves low-income students in California, uses technology to enhance — not replace — the work that teachers are doing. Students spend up to two hours a day in a computer learning lab mastering basic math and reading skills through exercises and puzzles, freeing up teachers to spend their time on advanced skills and concepts. The schools invest the money they save through computer learning back into teacher salaries and coaching. At Rocketship, technology strengthens the personal ties between students, parents and teachers that are the key to its success.

Children growing up in poverty need all the support and nurturing from adults that they can get. If we want a real revolution in education, we should make an all-out effort to attract and keep our best people in our schools. Technology can be a powerful force in that effort when guided by leaders who understand what students and teachers need to do their best.

We can’t outsource the human connections at the heart of the learning experience. Transforming the lives and learning of our children will take more than machines. It will take the best of our human resources.

The Generational Divide in Online Learning

By Mandy Zatunski

Mandy Zatynski is a writer/editor at Education Sector.

A paper released recently by the Community College Research Center reminds the champions of MOOCs and other online initiatives of one very important detail: Not all students prefer an online education; many higher education students still want in-person discussions and on-the-spot feedback.

But that’s not to say it will stay that way.

The CCRC paper is based on a small survey of community college students, about half of whom were 30 or older. Age, or the generational divide, is important to consider. For example, my brother and I are galaxies apart in terms of technology, even though he’s only six years younger. He has never known a world without computers, while I still remember the awe of searching on the Internet for the first time. He reads news from a screen; I flip through the Sunday paper. In college, he learned on computers in campus labs; I bought textbooks and highlighted relevant passages. I can’t reach my brother by calling him, but if I send a text message, my phone will buzz with an immediate reply.

I side with the students in the CCRC survey who say they want to go to brick-and-mortar classrooms, listen to professors’ lectures, and ask questions in real-time. But I see my brother and the generation behind me, raised to do everything through technology, and I acknowledge that student preferences will naturally change with time. But how much?

In the survey, students said they were more likely to take “easy” courses online – meaning ones they could teach themselves – but preferred a face-to-face environment for more complicated courses, such as science and foreign language. This speaks to a growing need to move general education curricula online, much like the University System of Georgia does with eCore. Students there can take the first two years of their four-year degree online, before moving into classes on campus required for their major. If more universities moved in this direction, it could streamline articulation agreements and transfer processes for students, ensuring that they wouldn’t lose credit if they decided to switch institutions—as many college students do.

This mixed approach, of online and face-to-face coursework, is more likely to become the future of higher education (rather than, say, MOOCs). But until higher education institutions fill the connection void that so many 30-and-older online students feel—and until schools give more support to help them succeed independently—many of these students will continue to be intrigued enough to enroll in an online course, but not impressed enough to return.

A warning to young people

All I can say is, well put…

Posted by Nicky Mohan via The Huffington Post

Nothing I have ever done has brought me as much joy as I have received from teaching children how to write the past 14 years. Helping young writers grow and mature has been richly rewarding and I would not trade my experiences for anything.

That being said, if I were 18 years old and deciding how I want to spend my adult years, the last thing I would want to become is a classroom teacher.

Classroom teachers, especially those who are just out of college and entering the profession, are more stressed and less valued than at any previous time in our history.

They have to listen to a long list of politicians who belittle their ability, blame them for every student whose grades do not reach arbitrary standards, and want to take away every fringe benefit they have — everything from the possibility of achieving tenure to receiving a decent pension.

Young teachers from across the United States have told me they no longer have the ability to properly manage classrooms, not because of lack of training, not because of lack of ability, not because of lack of desire, but because of upper administration decisions to reduce statistics on classroom referrals and in-school and out-of-school suspensions. As any classroom teacher can tell you, when the students know there will be no repercussions for their actions, there will be no change in their behavior. When there is no change in their behavior, other students will have a more difficult time learning.

While I am fully in favor of students taking control of their learning, I also remember a long list of teachers whose knowledge and experience helped me to become a better student and a better person.

Teachers are being told over and over again that their job is not to teach, but to guide students to learning on their own. While I am fully in favor of students taking control of their learning, I also remember a long list of teachers whose knowledge and experience helped me to become a better student and a better person. They encouraged me to learn on my own, and I did, but they also taught me many things. In these days when virtual learning is being force-fed to public schools by those who will financially benefit, the classroom teacher is being increasingly devalued. The concept being pushed upon us is not of a teacher teaching, but one of who babysits while the thoroughly engaged students magically learn on their own.

During the coming week in Missouri, the House of Representatives will vote on a bill which would eliminate teacher tenure, tie 33 percent of our pay to standardized test scores (and a lesser, unspecified percentage for those who teach untested subjects) and permit such innovations as “student surveys” to become a part of the evaluation process.

Each year, I allow my students to critique me and offer suggestions for my class. I learn a lot from those evaluations and have implemented some of the suggestions the students have made. But there is no way that eighth graders’ opinions should be a part of deciding whether I continue to be employed.

The Missouri House recently passed a budget that included $2.5 million to put Teach for America instructors in our urban schools. The legislature also recently acted to extend the use of ABCTE (American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence), a program that allows people to switch careers and become teachers without having to go through required teaching courses.

It is hard to get past the message being sent that our teachers are not good enough so we have to go outside to find new ones.

And of course to go along with all of these slaps in the face to classroom teachers, the move toward merit pay continues. Merit pay and eliminating teacher tenure, while turning teachers into at-will employees are the biggest disservice our leaders can do to students. How many good classroom teachers will no longer be in the classroom because they question decisions by ham handed administrators looking to quickly make a name for themselves by implementing shortsighted procedures that might look good on resumes, but will have a negative impact on student learning.

If you don’t believe this kind of thing will happen, take a look at what has occurred in our nation’s public schools since the advent of No Child Left Behind. Everything that is not math or reading has been de-emphasized. The teaching of history, civics, geography, and the arts have shrunk to almost nothing in some schools, or are made to serve the tested areas. Elementary children have limited recess time so more time can be squeezed in for math and reading.

Each year, I allow my students to critique me and offer suggestions for my class. I learn a lot from those evaluations and have implemented some of the suggestions the students have made.

Even worse, in some schools weeks of valuable classroom time are wasted giving practice standardized tests (and tests to practice for the practice standardized tests) so obsessive administrators can track how the students are doing. In many school districts across the nation, teachers have told me, curriculum is being based on these practice standardized tests.

That devaluation and de-emphasis of classroom teachers will grow under Common Core Standards. Pearson, the company that has received the contract to create the tests, has a full series of practice tests, while other companies like McGraw-Hill with its Acuity division, are already changing gears from offering practice materials for state tests to providing comprehensive materials for Common Core.

Why would anyone willingly sign up for this madness?

As a reporter who covered education for more than two decades, and as a teacher who has been in the classroom for the past 14 years, I cannot remember a time when the classrooms have been filled with bad teachers. The poor teachers almost never lasted long enough to receive tenure. Whether it is was because they could not maintain control over their classrooms or because they did not have sufficient command over their subject matter, they soon found it wise to find another line of work.

Yes, there are exceptions — people who slipped through the cracks, and gained tenure, but there is nothing to stop administrators from removing those teachers. All tenure does is to provide teachers with the right to a hearing. It does not guarantee their jobs.

Times have changed. I have watched over the past few years as wonderfully gifted young teachers have left the classroom, feeling they do not have support and that things are not going to get any better.

In the past, these are the teachers who stayed, earned tenure, and built the solid framework that has served their communities and our nation well.

That framework is being torn down, oftentimes by politicians who would never dream of sending their own children to the kind of schools they are mandating for others.
Despite all of the attacks on the teachers, I am continually amazed at the high quality of the young people who are entering the profession. It is hard to kill idealism, no matter how much our leaders (in both parties) try.

I suppose I am just kidding myself about encouraging young people to enter some other profession, any other profession, besides teaching.

After all, what other profession would allow me to make $37,000 a year after 14 years of experience and have people tell me how greedy I am?

When is technology appropriate in education?

What if Moore’s Law applied to humans?

By Dominic Basulto, The Washington Post, 23 April 2013

What if Moore’s Law — the now-famous observation by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that computing power doubles roughly every 18-24 months — held for not just computing complexity, but biological complexity as well? The appearance of so many new exponentially-growing information technologies today, all of them roughly following the trajectory of Moore’s Law — combined with our growing knowledge of how to manipulate the very building blocks of life — would certainly seem to hint at a future in which human potential is eventually measured in exponential rather than linear terms. That has profound implications. It means that even the humans of the near future may look nothing like today’s humans.

Applying Moore’s Law to biological complexity and human development may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. Recently, the geneticists Alexei Sharov of the National Institute on Aging in Maryland and Richard Gordon of the Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Florida crunched the DNA data and found that — even without technological interference — complexity has doubled roughly every 376 million years. What doubles in complexity is not the number of transistors on a circuit, of course, but a proxy for biological complexity: the length of functional, non-redundant DNA per genome, counted by nucleotide base pairs. While a doubling every 376 million years may not sound as impressive as one every 18 months, it does mean that it’s possible to map in a tidy exponential chart the development of all life using DNA — from prokaryotes to eukaryotes to worms to fish to mammals. If you extrapolate backwards, these findings suggest that life started nearly 10 billion years ago -, a finding with dramatic implications for the very origins of life on planet Earth.

So if human life was already developing on an exponential trajectory, imagine what’s possible when humans start taking advantage of all of the new exponential information technologies out there to accelerate the glacial pace of natural evolution. These new exponential information technologies are already giving us unprecedented abilities to mimic nature’s creations (via 3D printing), to increase our powers of awareness (via augmented reality), and to communicate with not only people but objects as well (via sensors hooked up to the cloud). Now, imagine what happens once these acquired traits begin to be transferred to the tiny DNA molecules that define life.

Perhaps the most important of these new exponential technologies are the ones in which individual humans, acting together, are able to “vote” on the advances that push forward the human race. I’m talking about “crowdfunding,” of course, the process by which society uses its collective wisdom to decide how to allocate scarce capital to even scarcer resources. Instead of nature allocating capital to the winners, it’s humans that have the final say in who the “winners” are. The crowdfunding movement spurred by platforms such as Kickstarter hint at what’s possible. First, we were able to raise tens of thousands of dollars, seemingly overnight, for unique and creative projects that increase the human capital of the human race. Now, we’re able to raise millions.

The next phase, as Dave Girouard pointed out in an opinion piece for Wired, is the crowdfunding of people rather than the crowdfunding of projects. At that point, we’d essentially be placing bets on which individuals have the best ideas for advancing the human race. Indirectly, we’d be betting on the underlying DNA of those individuals — that they have the smarts, the savvy and the endurance to succeed. Using equity capital to fund human capital could be the next great transformation of crowdfunding, unlocking even more human potential.

We could be living in a new exponential age in which we’re about to reach the steep “stick” part of the proverbial hockey-stick growth curve showing exponential growth. There are various names for this new era, with the most familiar of these being “the Singularity”, but all of them describe a common phenomenon: the moment when mankind is able to outgrow its biological limitations by fusing with technological machines. It may not happen within the next decade, as predicted by Ray Kurzweil and others, and it may not even happen during our lifetime. But it is almost a certainty that the pace of human development is accelerating at a pace that’s faster than a simple doubling every 376 million years.

Can student-driven learning happen under Common Core?

By Marsha Ratzel

Marsha Ratzel is a National Board-certified teacher in the Blue Valley School District in Kansas, where she teaches middle school math and science. Her book about shifting her science teaching practice to emphasize student-driven learning will be published this spring by Powerful Learning Press. A portion of this post originally appeared on Voices from the Learning Revolution.

Teachers use different strategies to help students learn. With the inevitable arrival of the Common Core State Standards, however, the big unknown is what will happen when the assessments are released and the states and the federal government develop policies to accommodate them. If the assessments fall back on the kinds of narrow questions we saw with No Child Left Behind, and if governments create the same kind of high-stakes accountability, teachers will be herded back towards lower levels of prescriptive learning that leave little room for student voice and ownership.

But if assessments mirror the broad principles and effective pedagogy that the CCSS authors have championed, there is hope that rote learning and teacher-driven classrooms will not be necessary in order for students to pass the test.

STUDENT-DRIVEN LEARNING

Most student-driven classrooms start with a question. It’s usually one that springs from a common place but allows for individualization by students based on their interests. It allows them to build questions and go about answering them, utilizing the skills and knowledge that the curriculum provides. The teacher facilitates this learning, to be sure, but also gives authority to the student to “own” their question. The student moves to center stage and the teacher assumes a supporting role.

Three of the eight mathematical practices that lie at the heart of all the Common Core’s K-12 math standards could be statements that describe a student-centered classroom.

For example, the capacities stated in the CCSS to “make sense of problems and persevere in solving them,” “reason abstractly and quantitatively,” and “construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others” are all integral to successful units where students ask and answer their own questions — and to a classroom where they see their viewpoint as valuable to the educational process.

The “tension” will come when the the goal of student-driven learning bumps up against the traditional teacher’s instinct to provide the context and the questions for students to use. Especially in the beginning years of CCSS implementation, this tension will be heightened as teachers learn what they are expected to teach (not just content but things like “sense-making, “reasoning,” and “constructing”) but have not yet figured out the places where they can turn the reins over to students.

HOW DO WE TEACH PERSEVERANCE?

A key CCSS principle (Math Practice MP1) is to “make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.” The alignment between student-driven learning and CCSS is very close here. Student-driven learning revolves around identifying problems that students believe are important to them and applicable to their real life, and then finding ways to solve them. The CCSS encourages teachers to help students “find the meaning of a problem and look for entry points…analyzing givens, constraints, relationships and goals.” If a teacher has already established (or begun to establish) the student-centered classroom, this will be familiar territory.

Through artful inquiry-based instruction, teachers can co-learn along with students by gently guiding and providing probing questions of their own. We have to be patient as our kids gain the ability to do this. Students who have spent years in NCLB classrooms will struggle to find how to make sense of problems. Why? Simply because they have seldom been presented with complex scenarios. The deeper student learning that can emerge from this style of teaching can’t be assessed with a multiple choice question. So we haven’t encouraged teachers to become skillful in this way, and we’ve raised a generation of rote learners.

Most student-driven classrooms start with a question. It’s usually one that springs from a common place but allows for individualization by students based on their interests.

Even so, our students can reconnect with their innate curiosity and excitement about learning. Over the past several years of shifting my practice, I have seen their natural curiosity return. When it does, persevering isn’t nearly so hard. Until it does, teachers will have to continually re-assure and support students in building deeper, higher level kinds of questions.

ELA STANDARDS AND STUDENT-DRIVEN TEACHING

Within the first ELA strand, writing, the Common Core articulates steps for writing a good argument and defending it. Details about how these skills are going to build up from lower grades (with increasing amounts of sophistication) are not present in the standards. That will fall to the collective expertise of teachers working together to make this happen, and to curriculum writers at the district or state levels. We will have to work at understanding what kinds of vertical alignments are needed so we can craft lessons to be matched with our students’ needs at each level.

Common Core writing standards appear to emphasize “the ability to write logical arguments based on substantive claims…reasoning…and relevant evidence.” If students were able to demonstrate this ability in their writing, they would be able to describe and defend their ideas to others. And that empowering skill set is exactly what a student-driven classroom seeks to achieve.

THE INTERSECTION OF ELA AND STEM SUBJECTS

More tension will arise for traditional teaching as educators are called upon to expand the student’s understanding of non-fiction and technical topics, like those associated with STEM subjects and social sciences. In recent years, students have been heavily focused on writing narrative and creative writing kinds of pieces. The expansion of real-world study topics called for in the Common Core should open up the student-driven classroom even more.

Writing’s partner is speaking and listening. In a student-driven classroom, there is much “argumentation, debate and discourse” as students wrestle with the questions. The best of those classrooms foster respect between students as they learn from each other. They have to develop the ability to hold their own during small group discussions as well as classroom discussions.

What should please teachers is the fact that the CCSS standards address the formal, stand-in-front-of-the-class presentation and the collegial discussions between students. When I read about “….informal discussions that take place as students collaborate to answer questions, build understanding and solve problems,” I see support of student choice. These words underscore the importance of students’ conversations about what they are learning and the interpersonal skills that are necessary for undertaking co-learning of ideas and content. Building understanding and solving problems are goals that demand we address the group dynamics involved in studying a real-world situation and brainstorming ideas back and forth.

Ultimately there is room in the Common Core’s vision and principles for advocates of student-driven learning to thrive. As teachers gain experience in the CCSS standards that apply to their grade level, they will identify places where there are opportunities to put student questions at the forefront of their lesson plans. Over time, as students build up their ability to read, write, speak and find solutions to increasingly more complex kinds of problems, they will be able to take more and more ownership of the learning process.

All this assumes, of course, that the large-scale assessment and accountability systems are designed to promote this potentially powerful marriage of the Common Core and student-driven learning. I’ve been teaching a long time. I know how big that assumption is. But at the classroom level, the best way I know to make it happen is to show what could happen. So I’m going to keep doing that.

The PC is dead (or is definitely dying)

“Evan Niu combines four years worth of facts and figures together in the following WalletPop article for a single purpose—to put one of the most hotly-contested notions in the computer world to bed once and for all. ”

via WalletPop

By Evan Niu, CFA
The Motley Fool

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the PC is dead. This has been a recurring debate in the tech world for years. Plenty of digital ink has been spilled right here on Fool.com trying to prove and disprove that notion. Investors would be surprised at how much has actually happened over the past three to four years.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has proclaimed that we’re now entering the “Post-PC” era, butMicrosoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) thinks it’s more like “PC-Plus.” I’ll show you one simple chart that proves the PC is dead.

Three for the price of one!
First, I have a little confession to make. I’ve misled you a tiny bit; there’s actually more than one chart for us to go through, but don’t worry, we’ll get to it. I’ve compiled four years of quarterly historical data from IDC on the smartphone, tablet, and PC markets and created a handful of charts to make my case.

These are worldwide PC unit shipments over the past four years:

I know what you’re thinking right now: “Reports of the PC’s death are greatly exaggerated.” Sure, the PC market isn’t growing like it used to, and total unit shipments in 2012 came in at 352.4 million. That’s still a big market any way you slice it, and units were down only 3.2% from the 363.9 million units that were moved in 2011. “Death” may seem a little dramatic for an annual decline of “just” 3.2%.

The previous chart is not the problem, though. This one is:

Source: IDC.

While the overall PC market is down marginally, smartphone and tablet units have absolutely exploded. If you think about the computing landscape today, these three categories of devices represent the primary ways in which people compute and connect. Back in 2009, PCs really were the dominant form factor used in computing, and the smartphone market was still nascent and a relatively niche segment of the broader mobile phone market, even after Apple revolutionized the industry in 2007 with the iPhone.

There’s much debate over how viable an alternative tablets currently are to PCs, but this is a classic textbook case of disruption happening before our very eyes, where a new technology invades from below before it can satisfy mainstream performance needs. Over time, the new technology improves on performance and moves up-market once it reaches performance parity (usually with cost advantages), causing the incumbent technology to retreat upwards into higher-performance niche segments.

This is the true threat to the PC, as widespread global adoption of smartphones and tablets can arguably replace the PC for most users’ casual needs. Soon, tablets will replace most consumer PCs. The first sign that this is happening will be extended upgrade cycles, followed by minimal consumer PC upgrades. PCs will always have a place in enterprise and higher-performance professional segments, but the mainstream consumer is shifting to mobile — fast.

If we look at the broader market for computing devices through this lens, the PC’s share has absolutely plunged. This is the chart that proves that the PC is indeed dead.

Source: IDC.

At the beginning of 2009, the PC comprised nearly two-thirds of all computing devices, with the rest being smartphones. Then Apple introduced the iPad in Q2 2010 and jump-started the tablet market, which has now grown to 122.6 million units in 2012. In less than three years, the tablet market is now already a third of the PC market in unit terms.

Mobile device adoption shows no signs of slowing down, and now PCs are just a quarter of all computing devices sold today. That’s an incredible decline in the PC’s share of the computing market over the span of just four years. This is what people are talking about when they refer to the death of the PC.

One for the road
How do Apple and Microsoft play into all of this?

Microsoft continues to dominate the PC landscape. Linux market share tends to hover around 1% and Apple was about 4.8% of the global PC market last year. That leaves the remaining 94% or so of PCs running Windows. Smartphone OS figures for Q4 2012 have not been released yet by IDC, but Windows Phone and Windows Mobile market share is typically between 2% to 3%.

Only in the fourth quarter did Microsoft officially enter the tablet market meaningfully with Windows 8 and Surface, and IDC pegs Q4 Surface units at 900,000. In December, IDC estimated that Windows would garner 2.9% of the tablet market in 2012.

When you put all of that together, Microsoft owned about 30.3% of the entire computing device market in 2012. Back in 2009 when the tablet market didn’t exist, that figure was 64.2%. That’s a remarkable drop in Microsoft’s total share of the computing market.

In contrast, while Apple has always been a small player in the PC market, it’s been the defining company of the smartphone and tablet markets. While Microsoft was seeing its share of computing decline, Apple’s has more than tripled, from 6.1% to 20.7%.

Sources: IDC and Apple.

Tim Cook has long voiced his belief that the tablet market will soon eclipse the PC market as part of the “Post-PC” rhetoric. So far, it’s playing out more like Apple envisioned it instead of how Microsoft saw it going

Initial results show A5 students test below average

By Devin Katayama

The Kentucky Department of Education has released minimal data on some of the state’s alternative schools for the first time publicly, but officials say it’s still difficult to determine whether a program is successful.

Around 200 alternative education programs exist in Kentucky, according to KDE. Most alternative programs serve at at-risk students with unique needs. The program could be district-operated or be partnered with a non-district institution—like Bellewood in Jefferson County—and in some cases serve students that are State Agency Children or the responsibility of the Juvenile Justice Department.

Educators say because the services at each school vary so widely—from drug treatment to mental health to students who have to work during the school day—it’s nearly impossible to compare the schools to each other.

Ken Draut, KDE’s associate commissioner in the Office of Assessment and Accountability, estimates there are up to 25,000 students that touch the alternative school system throughout any given year, but not all those students take the state’s standardized test in an alternative school setting.

“What we found out is on a given day in these tested areas there’s about 5,000 kids,” Draut says.

Other estimates say around 70,000 students are cycling in and out of alternative programs throughout the state, but Draut says that’s likely miscalculated. Regardless, only students who are in a particular alternative school on the day Kentucky gives its standardized test in May show up in KDE’s results online. That number, as mentioned above, is about 5,000 students, Draut says.

Also, if the number of students tested at a particular alternative school is too low, the school is not permitted to expose those scores to the public. That’s meant to protect students who may otherwise be identified. So, if you were to look on KDE’s “School Report Card” webpage for results from a particular school, you might come up empty handed.

Further, KDE does not show other assessment data like graduation rates or college-and-career ready rates for alternative schools. These results follow the student back to the school that referred them, Draut says.

But the minimal testing samples KDE provides may still be useful to help determine which students struggle most and it certainly shows that students tested at alternative schools perform significantly lower on average than traditional schools.

“If I was a parent, that would be information I would want to know because their scores are not very high,” Draut says.

The purpose for providing the data publicly is to hold districts and schools more accountable, he says.

Kentucky has had a difficult time tracking and assessing alternative programs and the state recently approved a new regulation that improves oversight of alternative schools, but provides little in the way of assessing an alternative school’s performance.

8 unique online presentation tools for students

By Ross Crockett, 21st Century Fluency Project

A great presentation is more than just a vehicle for delivering facts and information. You know this because when you’ve witnessed a great one you’ve walked away entertained, refreshed, and inspired.

Chances are you’ll remember certain things about it that really resonated with you, and you’ll find it much easier to retain the content because it was offered to you in such a unique way. Great presentations are a combination of carefully chosen visuals, concisely plotted information, and often a very simple approach meant to connect to an audience rather than overwhelm them with bullet points and embedded media. In such presentations, everything has a purpose and place.

Often students are called upon to make presentations for class projects, and many are eager to break out of the mold of the standard PowerPoint and do something really special. These are 8 unique online presentation tools that will help your students do exactly that. From zooming presentations to animations to timelines, there’s a little something for every great idea here.

Prezi

source: http://youtu.be/Tp1iqZQH5vI

Prezi is an online presentation tool that works with a “zoom in, zoom out, tilt” technique to create a dynamic and entertaining alternative to the standard slideshow. Its basic service is free to use with an account signup, and for a charge you can update to more professional versions.

Presentations are storyboarded using the wheel menu in the top left corner of the Prezi canvas, which is like a whiteboard you place your ideas on instead of using slides. You can then add text and images, embed video, and choose different colors and templates. You can completely control the size and angle of your text and images using Prezi’s “zebra wheel” controller.

It’s also portable—users can work on their presentation anywhere anytime, and when it’s completed it can be published and shared or embedded into a blog.

Prezentit

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM4ySl1S554

This is another easy-to-use online tool that offers a great way to make own presentations right online quickly and easily. It has a very simple interface and comes pre-loaded with a decent background palette for coloring slides, and also a small image gallery for image backgrounds. You can also upload your own images and add text like most other online tools. In addition, there is a dashboard for applying lots of different slide transitions for a more dynamic look and flow.

Prezentit allows you to download presentations and show them without an Internet connection. Each presentation created is actually a web page with its own unique web address. In addition, there is no limit to the number of slides you can use in your presentation, and Prezentit offers 250MB of storage space for images.

Empressr

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nowl7TCUM4

When you open up the Empressr homepage, you are treated to a whole spread of different presentation samples that show you how powerful this free little tool is. Instead of being billed as an online presentation tool, the folks at Empressr call it a “storytelling” tool. That’s an appropriate description once you see what it can do.

Start with a blank page, upload an existing PowerPoint file, or upload several images all at once to create an instant Empressr. You can import images from Flickr, Google, Yahoo, and Photobucket, and use the charts and table tools to display stats and figures in creative ways. Along the way, Empressr offers tips on how to get the most out of the presentation interface. And of course, your creations can be embedded into a website, blog, or social networking page, or you can simply post a link directly to the presentation in those same places.

Zoho Show

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF5152yYROk

This tool for creating portable presentations has recently been improved to provide a smoother interface and enhanced slide transitions and animation techniques. They’ve made room for a higher level of slide customization and consistency, with a new Master slide feature and more powerful slide design tools.

You can import many different kinds of presentation slide files and work on them using Zoho Show. You can also embed videos and import images from Picasa and Flickr, and can also transform your images into unique shapes to give them a different look for your content. The image editing features and shape tools are also superb.

Timeglider

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox04XnBsZuk

If your students want to try something a little different, Timeglider is a great choice for an online presentation enhancement tool. As the name suggests, this is a tool that allows you to create interesting visual timelines. There is a free plan, and a paid plan for an additional $5 per month. With a free account, you can create up to three different timelines and embed them in a larger presentation. The paid plan allows up to 10 timelines and over 200 images to be uploaded. You can also create full timeline presentations and collaborate with other users on projects.

When staging your timeline in Timeglider, you create a new “event” or simply double-click on the timeline stage to get started. The interface lets you enter your dates and information and code them according to their significance in the timeline’s history. Then when you employ Timeglider’s panning and zooming features while giving a presentation, the timeline doesn’t look visually cluttered or stacked, because only your most important points become the most visually prominent.

Once you choose to make a timeline accessible for public viewing, a unique URL is created for it. This can be used as part of an embed code for placing on blogs and websites.

Xtranormal

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k3cK1c2dpA&feature=related

Chances are you’ve seen videos on the Web that have made use of this fun and dynamic storytelling tool. Xtranormal is a favorite for those students who are looking to create fun and entertaining animated presentations.

Xtranormal is a free online tool that now offers a feature called Xtranormal Desktop. This is a powerful option for creating animated shorts that feature hundreds of character and background choices for crafting truly stunning 1080p HD projects. There are account options for students and educators that are either free or paid monthly. Students love Xtranormal because of the many engaging worlds they can design and populate with unique animated characters that come to virtual life right onscreen.

Smilebox

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdvTR5C6M2o

Smilebox is a great tool for spicing up slideshows. Check out the samples to see what you can create using this simple but highly effective slideshow animator. Smilebox is also available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

In Smilebox, you’ll find hundreds of different customizable templates to create a truly unique slideshow presentation. You can add photos and videos and then apply your own text, and even add music files. This is a very versatile tool that can be used for anything from scrapbooks, greeting cards, and animated collages, to quick and powerful business or classroom presentations. You can also share your slideshows by email, on Facebook, or on your own blog, or burn them onto a DVD.

GoAnimate

Will online education craze leave some students behind?

By Noliwe M. Rooks
July 30, 2012
http://ideas.time.com

You have probably heard some of the hoopla about elite universities offering free online courses through Coursera, a new Silicon Valley start-up founded by Stanford University computer-science professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. In just the past few weeks, Coursera has added has added 12 universities to its lineup, bringing its total to 16, including Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Duke and Johns Hopkins.

The company’s website says its goal is to “give everyone access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few,” and, accordingly, much of the news coverage has focused on how this will democratize learning. Two weeks after Coursera announced its initial round of partnerships, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a plan to invest $60 million in a similar course platform called edX, and then a third company, Udacity, announced that it too would join the fray.

Despite near universal enthusiasm for such projects, it’s important to take a few steps back. First, although the content is free now, it’s unlikely that it will remain that way for long. According to an analysis of one of Coursera’s contracts, both the company and the schools plan to make a profit — they just haven’t figured out the best way to do that yet. But more important, I am concerned that computer-aided instruction will actually widen the gap between the financially and educationally privileged and everyone else, instead of close it.

This is what has been happening in K-12 public schools. Over the past 10 years, public school districts have invested millions of dollars in various types of online and computer-aided learning and instruction programs, yet few are able to show the educational benefit of their expenditures for a majority of students. Those who benefit most are already well organized and highly motivated. Other students struggle, and may even lose ground.

In terms of learning on the college level, the Department of Education looked at thousands of research studies from 1996 to 2008 and found that in higher education, students rarely learned as much from online courses as they did in traditional classes. In fact, the report found that the biggest benefit of online instruction came from a blended learning environment that combined technology with traditional methods, but warned that the uptick had more to do with the increased amount of individualized instruction students got in that environment, not the presence of technology. For all but the brightest, the more time students spend with traditional instruction, the better they seem to do.

Supporters of online learning say that all anyone needs to access a great education is a stable Internet connection. But only 35% of households earning less than $25,000 have broadband access to the Internet, compared with 94% of households with income in excess of $100,000. In addition, according to the 2010 Pew Report on Mobile Access, only half of black and Latino homes have Internet connections at all, compared with almost 65% of white households. Perhaps most significant, many blacks and Latinos primarily use their cell phones to access the Internet, a much more expensive and less-than-ideal method for taking part in online education. In short, the explosion of this type of educational instruction, though free now, may leave behind the students who need education the most.

It’s not hard to understand why the chance to watch lectures, pass tests and even get a formal certificate from an elite school would stir excitement. Until now, most students would never have the opportunity to experience any part of what happens on these elite campuses. But as the recently released Pew report on the American Dream makes clear, a four-year college degree is the only type of educational intervention that promotes upward mobility from the lower-middle class. If we really want to democratize education, finding creative ways to realistically open up colleges to different communities will do more to help than a model that, despite its stated intentions, is more beneficial for students who are already wealthy, academically prepared and highly motivated. We ought to make sure that everyone has access to the same opportunities, or we will further widen the opportunity gaps we mean to close.

12 things students should never do on social media

By Stephanie Buck
http://mashable.com

The last thing young people want is another set of rules. But these days, social media comes with great responsibility, whether you’re just starting high school or finishing up college.

The fact is, irresponsible social media conduct could potentially ruin your education and negatively impact your career, not to mention hurt others in the process. (And we’re not just talking kids, either.) But most of those consequences are preventable, often with just a little foresight.

We’ve pinpointed 12 social media mistakes that students should avoid at all costs, because after all, it’s never as simple as “be responsible.” And it’s never as finite as “don’t friend your teacher on Facebook.” Social media circumstances are nuanced and vary by situation, school and user.

Please head to the comments below to add your own contributions and advice for young adults on social media.

1. Post Illegal Activities

Granted, high school and college students experiment with many activities and substances. But the second you post a video of last weekend’s bong hit or trash-can tipping adventure, you become vulnerable not only for school expulsion but also for criminal prosecution; in other words, consequences that affect the rest of your life. Even if your profile is set to private, a friend can always download and save incriminating photos that he or the authorities can use against you in the future.

Once or twice per year, perform a thorough review of the information and content accessible on your social media profiles. That way, you’ll be able to locate and remove that photo of your underage keg stand before you apply for your next job.

2. Bullying

Bullying is one of the most serious problems in schools today. Vicious treatment and hateful words between students often lead to violence, suicide, depression and discrimination among the student body.

… don’t assume you can get away with a tweet here and a status update there — many schools have implemented systems that track logins and IP addresses. In other words, you’re on the clock.

When a student turns to social media, blogs or virtually any online space as a forum for hurtful speech, the risks are unmeasurable. Not only does that student face expulsion, but also serious criminal prosecution.

Check your school’s policy on bullying. One California high school’s student handbook reads, “Harassment on the basis of any protected characteristic is strictly prohibited. This includes any verbal, written (including any posted material on any computer network) or physical conduct that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward any individual or his/her relatives, friends or associates because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, marital status, veteran status, citizenship or disability…”

3. Trash Your Teachers

Bullying doesn’t just apply to student-to-student interactions. Students who speak poorly of their teachers (or post embarrassing photos of them) run a huge risk, too. After all, your instructors have a right to privacy and respect.

“Posting a negative comment about any teacher at your school is like getting on a microphone to announce that you will be burning down a bridge,” says Heather Starr Fiedler, associate professor of multimedia at Point Park University. “You never know which one of your professors will hold the keys to the next great internship or job announcement.”

You should even be wary of school or teacher-related posts you think are harmless — you never know whose feelings you’ve accidentally hurt. Dan Farkas, instructor of strategic communication at Ohio University, describes a scenario gone wrong. “I had several students tweet with excitement when I cancelled a class, ready to have a slightly easier Monday,” he says. “What they didn’t know was that I cancelled class to take my wife to the emergency room. It still makes my blood boil.”

The same goes for institutions or persons of authority in general, not just teachers. High school seniors should be careful not to negatively post about specific colleges or geographical areas — these days, admissions officers thoroughly investigate the social media activity and personalities of applicants. One negative tweet could seal the fate of your college acceptance.

4. Post Objectionable Content From School Computers or Networks

Many schools prohibit all computer activity on campus not directly related to coursework. That almost always includes social media use, especially that which is objectionable (e.g. profanity, harassment, etc.). And don’t assume you can get away with a tweet here and a status update there — many schools have implemented systems that track logins and IP addresses. In other words, you’re on the clock.

5. Post Confidential Information

This piece of advice goes for every social media user, not just students. But young people are especially vulnerable to online predators and identity thieves.

Bullying doesn’t just apply to student-to-student interactions. Students who speak poorly of their teachers (or post embarrassing photos of them) run a huge risk, too.

Let this experience, from communications representative Jennifer Newman Galluzzo, be a warning: “This weekend my niece, who is going into her junior year of high school, posted her class schedule on Facebook. Took a picture of it and threw it right up there because she was so excited to share the info with her friends — complete with her social security number, student ID, address, full name, birthday and all the other personal information. I called her mom and informed her right away and her response was ‘Well, all the kids do that!’ I almost fainted.”

Think about how easy it is to share content on Facebook; if a single person shared that photo to his public profile, that sensitive information would be accessible by anyone, no hacking required. Identity stolen — just like that.

6. Overly Specific Location Check-Ins

Similar to protecting your identity, try not to get too specific with your social check-ins. Although your parents may appreciate the heads-up, posts like these make it easy for predators to locate you. And especially don’t check in on social media when you’re by yourself and/or in a remote location.

Social media analyst Brad Hines advises, “It is usually wise to do little sharing of where you are if you are by yourself, or have left your home by itself.”

7. Lie/Cheat/Plagiarize

Picture this: You convinced your professor to give you an extension on your term paper so you can visit your “sick” grandmother. Only instead, you blow off the paper to attend a Foo Fighters concert — and you post a status update to Facebook, check in on Foursquare and upload a photo of the performance to Instagram. Don’t be surprised when you return to a big fat F and an academic investigation.

The same goes for lying about professional/academic achievements when applying to a college or an internship. People will investigate. Just as they will investigate your social media for charges of plagiarism or cheating.

8. Threaten Violence

Threatening a person or group of people in any situation is unbelievably serious. Even posting an anonymous, empty threat to an obscure online forum full of strangers will raise red flags. And as soon as authorities have located a threat, they have the right to investigate — and they will.

A student named Alexander Song posted his intentions to Reddit: to “kill enough people to make it to national news.” Police located the young man and arrested him at school, despite the fact that he carried no weapons.

In other words, social media is not the place to vent your frustrations and violent thoughts. Talk to a school counselor about your concerns.

9. Ignore School-Specific Policies

School policies vary widely, according to religious affiliation, type of school (public vs. private), geographical location, district, gender (co-ed vs. single-gender), etc. Therefore, technology and social media policies are different for nearly every school. Behavior that may fly at one school is reason for expulsion at another.

“Posting a negative comment about any teacher … is like getting on a microphone to announce that you will be burning down a bridge. You never know which one of your professors will hold the keys to the next great internship or job announcement.”

For example, one Catholic high school’s student handbook reads, “When a student is using online social media (of any variety), she must always bear in mind that the material she posts reflects upon the school, our Diocese and the Roman Catholic Church as a whole.” That means, posting your opinions about sensitive subjects like abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, divorce or birth control, for example, could jeopardize your standing as a student.

While many types of content posted to social media are protected by free speech, your school may nonetheless find reason to use such opinions toward disciplinary action.

10. Unprofessional Public Profiles

Whether you’re a high school student applying to flip burgers at a local diner or a recent college grad looking to land a career, your social media presence needs to reflect responsibility.

“While searching for a job, I made sure to take down any questionable photos from my college days,” says recent James Madison University graduate, Christine Borkowski. “I took every red cup I could spot off my Facebook. It may seem a little extreme, but Facebook offers the ‘Download’ option of each photo.” That way, she could save any photo she removed from the social network.

Whether it’s a Google search or a social media examination, chances are a company is looking into your history. And sometimes, even a completely private social media profile sets off red flags for employers. In today’s age of transparency, a professional (albeit public) profile is the ideal.

“Whenever I evaluate a potential employee, I always take a look at what is publicly visible on their Facebook profile,” says Ryan Cohn, vice president of social/digital operations at What’s Next Marketing. “On two separate occasions, I have rejected entry level prospects (finishing their senior year of college) for featuring firearms in their profile picture. Both were qualified in terms of experience and otherwise would have been worthy of an interview.”

11. Never Rely on Privacy Settings 100%

Although most major social networks update you with privacy improvements, the changes are often too frequent to follow and can get complicated. However diligently you may protect your social media identity, it’s best to assume anything you post is fair game — potentially seen by your school, by your parents and by strangers.

“Students should never rely on privacy settings over good judgment,” says Andrew Moravick, social media specialist at SnapApp. “If you don’t want something to be seen, don’t post it on the Internet.”

12. Post Emotionally

We’ve all said and done things we regret. It’s human nature to react without thinking through the consequences. However, whenever possible, take a moment to imagine how your social media posts affect the feelings, safety and well-being of those around you — even your worst enemies. Posting an angry tweet in the heat of the moment may feel cathartic, but the momentary pleasure you get from writing it isn’t worth the potential harm it could create. Take a moment to breathe, think and reboot.

Evaluating the ‘flipped classroom’ approach

By Katie Ash
Published Online: August 27, 2012
Published in Print: August 29, 2012
www.edweek.org

A growing number of educators are working to turn learning on its head by replacing traditional classroom lectures with video tutorials, an approach popularly called the “flipped classroom.” Interest in that teaching method was in full view this summer at the International Society for Technology in Education annual conference in San Diego, where almost every session on the topic was filled to capacity.

The movement was inspired partly by the work of Salman Khan, who created a library of free online tutoring videos spanning a variety of academic subjects, known as the Khan Academy, which many view as a touchstone of the flipped-classroom technique. But, much like the Khan Academy itself, the approach is attracting increasing scrutiny—and criticism—among educators and researchers.

The term “flipping” comes from the idea of swapping homework for class work. Students typically are assigned the video-watching for homework, freeing up class time that used to be spent listening to lectures for hands-on activities and application of knowledge, which used to serve as homework.

However, as most educators who have begun to use the technique are quick to say, there are a multitude of ways to “flip” a classroom. Some teachers assign a video for homework, while others allow students to watch those videos in class. Still others make videos for the lesson, but do not require students to watch them at all, giving students a variety of resources and allowing them to choose what they utilize to learn the required information.

But just as the Khan Academy has recently come under fire from some in the education blogosphere for what critics say is flawed pedagogy, the flipped-classroom technique has also garnered criticism from some who believe that flipping is simply a high-tech version of an antiquated instructional method: the lecture.

“My concern is that if you’re still relying on lecture as your primary mode of getting content across, … you haven’t done anything to shift the type of learning that’s occurring,” said Andrew Miller, an educational consultant who works with the Alexandria, Va.-based professional-development group ASCD and the Novato, Calif.-based Buck Institute of Education, which works to promote project-based learning in classrooms.

“That’s not how all of us learn,” he said. “Just because you flipped your classroom doesn’t mean your students will watch the videos. How are you engaging your kids?”

Ramsey Musallam, a chemistry teacher at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, a private Catholic high school in San Francisco, shares Mr. Miller’s concerns.

“Everyone initially thought that [flipping] was an innovative way [to teach] because we’re so rooted in this idea that students don’t like homework,” he said.

“However, when you step back a little bit, what you’re looking at is simply a time-shifting tool that is grounded in the same didactic, lecture-based philosophy. It’s really a better version of a bad thing.”

Mr. Musallam, who is also an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco’s college of education, began flipping his classroom in 2006, but after noticing little difference in student learning despite the extra in-class time for labs and hands-on activities, he shifted his perspective.

The flipped-classroom technique has also garnered criticism from some who believe that flipping is simply a high-tech version of an antiquated instructional method: the lecture.

He still uses flipping as an instructional technique, but instead of giving students the video initially, they first go through an exploratory, guided inquiry-based period. Next, the students receive basic instructions and materials to complete lab work and observe the phenomena they are studying.

Only then, “when I feel that they can’t form any more ideas on their own,” does Mr. Musallam make videos to address misconceptions and provide instruction, he said.

Delaying the direct instruction as much as possible increases students’ curiosity, he said.

Using the flipping technique is not necessarily negative, Mr. Musallam said, but teachers should be realistic about what it really is.

“I say keep the flip alive, but lower the volume and think about it like we think about anything,” he said. “It’s a thing you do in the context of an overarching pedagogy,” not the pedagogy itself, he said.

Sharing Questions

Jonathan Bergmann, the lead technology facilitator for the 600-student K-8 Kenilworth school district in Illinois, is considered one of the pioneers of the flipped movement. He and his former fellow teacher Aaron Sams began using the flipping technique in 2006 at the 950-student Woodland Park High School in Woodland Park, Colo., to teach chemistry.

The pair created videos of their lectures and posted them online for their chemistry and Advanced Placement chemistry classes during the 2007-08 school year. They required the students to take notes on the videos and come to class with one thoughtful question to share.

The teachers found that the technique allowed them to spend more time with students one-on-one and to provide just-in-time intervention when students needed it. They also noticed an uptick in test scores in the students using the flipped-class technique.

Soon they began visiting other schools that were curious about the method and hosting conferences on flipping. They recently co-wrote a book called Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day, published in July of 2012 by the International Society for Technology in Education and the ASCD.

“You need to figure out the answer to the question: What’s the best use of your face-to-face instruction time?” Mr. Bergmann said.

Tips for Flipping

1. Don’t get hung up on creating your own videos. While some believe that students prefer to see their own teacher in the videos, others recommend harnessing the educational content that is already available on the Web. Resources such as the Khan Academy, YouTube EDU, and PBS can provide well-produced video content for your students.
2. Be thoughtful about what parts of your class you decide to “flip” and when. Deciding to flip part of your lesson will not automatically make it a better lesson. You have to be intentional about when to flip and clear about what the benefit will be for students.
3. If possible, find a partner to create videos with. Students enjoy hearing the back-and-forth conversation of two teachers, especially when one teacher plays the role of mentor while the other plays the role of learner.
4. Address the issue of access early. Survey your students to find out what technology they have at home, and find alternatives for students who lack Internet access. Alternatives may mean burning the videos onto DVDs or creating lists of places where students can go online.
5. Find a way to engage students in the videos. Just having students watch videos instead of listening to lectures doesn’t guarantee that they will be more engaged. Requiring students to take notes on the videos, ask questions about the videos, or engage in discussion about them will help ensure that they watch and absorb the material.

SOURCE: Education Week

After the first year, he and Mr. Sams made adjustments to the flipped classroom, moving from what they call the “traditional” flip to the “mastery based” flipped classroom.

In the mastery-based model, students are not required to watch videos at home on a specific day. Instead, they are given an outline for each unit that includes all the resources they might need for each objective, including videos, worksheets, and textbook excerpts. They can then work through the material at their own pace, even taking tests and quizzes and performing labs when they are ready rather than as a whole class.

Using technology to create test-question banks that could be randomized, so that no two students receive the same test and may receive completely different questions altogether, made the mastery flipped model possible, said Mr. Bergmann.

‘Self-Paced Became No Pace’

Deb Wolf, a high school instructional coach for the 24,000-student Sioux Falls district in South Dakota, also uses the mastery technique. Instead of letting students have complete control over their pace, though, she sets deadlines to keep everyone on track.

“For students who had not been challenged in the classroom, this was an opportunity for them to just fly,” she said. “For others, it was an opportunity to take the time that they needed to move slower. And for some, self-paced became no pace,” and teachers had to step in and create deadlines.

Ms. Wolf began flipping her chemistry class at Roosevelt High School in the spring of 2008 after hearing about the technique from Mr. Bergmann and Mr. Sams. During the 2008-09 school year, all the chemistry teachers in her school flipped their classrooms, and the next year, the district applied for a federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, which Ms. Wolf facilitated, that provided professional development for the district’s 35 math and science teachers around technology in the classroom.

“Most of them took away from that grant the idea that they could use technology to help provide students opportunities to master content in a variety of ways so that time became the variable, … not learning,” she said. “We didn’t have 35 teachers that all suddenly flipped their classrooms, but the take-away was that by harnessing technology, they provided students the opportunity to master what they didn’t master the first time.”

Still, engaging reluctant learners continues to be a challenge, said Ms. Wolf.

“[Our teachers] realized that we were dragging [such learners] along. They may have been in class, but they weren’t engaged. I know that we weren’t meeting all of their needs in the traditional classroom, and I’m not sure that we were meeting their needs in a flipped classroom either,” she said.

Like Mr. Musallam, Ms. Wolf emphasized that flipping is one approach in a wider framework of instructional methods to help reach students.

“You can’t just hand the flipped classroom off to an ineffective teacher and say you’re going to transform the classroom,” she said. “It’s not going to make a bad teacher a good teacher.”

Students and teachers at the Havana Community Unit School District’s 1,100-student high school in rural central Illinois will try their hands at the flipped technique when the entire school flips this fall.

In a district where 65 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, Superintendent Patrick Twomey hopes that flipping the school will help address the inequalities that hamper the high school’s population of students deemed at risk academically.

“[In the current model], one student goes home to educated parents who can help him with his homework, while another student goes home and gets no help,” Mr. Twomey said. “In the flipped model, both of those kids come back to the classroom after receiving the content, and now all of the help with the homework is given by the expert in the field.”

Facebook, YouTube offer student, parent guidelines

August 2, 2012 | 7:00 AM | ByMindShift
By Matt Levinson
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift

Online social giants YouTube and Facebook have taken big steps to attempt to provide guidance on digital citizenship for kids online. Google (which owns YouTube) just launched its ten-step online program for smart and safe YouTube use, with a series of instructional videos that hit on topics from cyberbullying to privacy. And Facebook has teamed up with Edutopia to help schools create social media guidelines.

As schools figure out their social media policies, Facebook is reportedly exploring allowing children under the age of 13 to use the site. “Recent reports have highlighted just how difficult it is to enforce age restrictions on the Internet, especially when parents want their children to access online content and services. We are in continuous dialogue with stakeholders, regulators and other policy makers about how best to help parents keep their kids safe in an evolving online environment” a Facebook statement says.

In the meantime, companies are sprouting up to quell (or stoke, depending on perspective) parent fears. From FBI Child ID, which “stores a photo of your child, along with a detailed description that might help others find him or her,” to Footprints, which is a location-sharing app to “help parents track their children’s movements,” parents are searching for solutions to “ease their fears,” according to a recent New York Times article.

The Times also reports that there are also slang translation apps to help parents make sense of text speak, sites that track a child’s Facebook and social media pages looking for inappropriate language, another site that alerts a parent when a child tries to access an inappropriate site, and one that monitors the time spent on Facebook.

WHAT CAN PARENTS DO?

As school policies and rules online continue to change, parents can talk openly with kids about being smart digital citizens, and can learn together.

• Watch the YouTube digital citizenship videos together as a family. Set up a lesson a day and talk through the different topics presented. This also gives the parent the space to learn from and with the child.
• Talk about what qualifies as unkind, hurtful online behavior and warrants a report to Facebook under its new reporting mechanism.
• Read the news together and talk about provocative stories that highlight topics around social media.

Matt Levinson is the Head of the Upper Division at Marin Country Day School in Corte Madera, Calif. and the author of From Fear to Facebook: One School’s Journey.