Category Archives: Uncategorized

Flip Convention on Its Head

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Transforming Education Through Flipped Classrooms

-Tradition
What we view as the standard, traditional, lecture based classroom was actually conceived in Prussia- imported to the United States in the early 1800’s by Horace Mann.  As Julianna noted in an earlier blog post, the development of this format came about mirroring developments brought about during the industrial revolution; educating the national workforce much akin to factories manufacturing commodities.  Horace Mann, Secretary of Education at the time, took lease of the Prussian model, importing the template for use in Massachusetts in 1852.

Horace Mann's School for the Deaf

Mann sought to provide the coming generation of American children a common experience, one that would help bridge the sectarian divide between Catholic and Protestant communities in Massachusetts, a conflict he believed was perpetuated by parochial schools.  By providing a free education to all citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, he was able to consolidate a common sense of identity between the two communities, and in this sense, it more than fulfilled its purpose.

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Collaborative Efforts Abound to Support STEM Education

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A recent study by The Council on Foreign Relations cites the growing inability for the US educational system to properly prepare students for careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related sciences.  This failure to properly prepare the newly graduated generation of workers has resulted in a notable gap of applicants for jobs in fields vital to maintaining economic competitiveness.  This pinch is first felt by technology companies at the local level, seeking to hire, though stymied by the shrinking number of qualified applicants for the growing number of vacant positions- though this is just the private sector.

Damian Dovarganes / AP

Contrast this with the fact that, over the last 50 years, “taxpayer investment in technology and STEM education has created more than half of the nation’s (United States’) economic growth” (Ayora Berry, 2012), while 2.6 million jobs in fields “like healthcare, aerospace, advanced precision manufacturing, scientific laboratory occupations, and computer-related design, are unfilled, according to a May 2010 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report”.

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Reversing Trends- Women in Technology

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There is a growing movement within Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (or STEM) related sciences indicating a growing under-representation of female members of the workforce, as compared to their male counterparts.  There are a number of contributing factors as to why this may be the case, some of which I plan to detail here.   Though, when a single gender occupies just 25% of the total number of workers in a given industry, the impetus is on us all to help develop long term solutions- particularly those of us in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.  The Educational Testing Service survey noted that 61% of opinion leaders and 40% of the general public identify math, science and technology skills as the most important elements of a national strategy to compete in the global economy, making this component of education a national imperative. (Zinth, Kyle. 2006. Recent State STEM Initiatives. Denver: Education Commission of the States.)

http://hechingered.org/content/why-do-girls-steer-clear-of-stem-fields_1679/
Photo by Ryan Brenizer

A National Issue- Possible Causes & Painful Realities
In November 2005, the background paper for a workshop on “Women in Scientific Careers” conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and its working group on the Steering and Funding of Research Institutions (SFRI) concluded that:

“…women obtain more than half of all university degrees in many countries but only around 30% of university degrees awarded in science and technology, OECD countries face a paradoxical situation: a feminisation of the workforce in general and of university-trained graduates in particular, but continued under-representation of women in the research workforce. …the available data tend to reinforce results from the academic literature that show women remain unevenly distributed in research occupations and under-represented in senior positions.”

Does this paradox owe itself to a glass ceiling responsible for the “under-represent(ation of women) in senior positions” or to the prevalence of an existing bias within the industry?  Some blame the widespread cultural prevalence of gender stereotypes that are responsible for reinforcing a defeatist belief among female children that “Math is for boys and not for girls”- findings sadly supported by a study of Second graders, conducted by researchers from the University of Washington released in The Science Daily.

Regardless of the reasons, the numbers do not look promising.  The Information Technology Association of America revealed that the number of women in the Information Technology (IT) workforce is continuing to decline: from a high of 41% in 1996 to 32% in 2004 despite female representation in the workforce as a whole continued to remain stead at 46% in the same period.

There is a particularly low level of academic engagement in STEM related learning among minority, female and lower-income students, who collectively comprise a growing proportion of the total college-going public.  In fact, a study conducted by the National Science Foundation using the National Assessment of Educational Progress noted “that of students at the 12th grade level, about three out of four white and Asian students scored at above basic level (which is far below proficient) on the math assessment, while fewer than half of Hispanics and under a third of African American students scoring the same level”. (US Department of Labor “The Stem Workforce Challenge: The Role of the Public Workforce in a National Solution for a Competitive Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Workforce- April, 2007)

In fact the shrinking number of women pursuing STEM related careers as part of their higher education is a disparity that is also reflected in levels of female employment as either “Full” or “Tenured” members of academic faculty.  Consider the following graphs noting the percentage of doctoral scientist and engineers employed in universities and 4-year colleges (S&E occupations) who are tenured, by race/ethnicity and gender- made available, again, by the National Science Foundation.

Percentage of doctoral scientists and engineers employed in universities and 4-year colleges (S&E occupations) who are tenured, by race/ethnicity and gender

Percentage of doctoral scientists and engineers employed in universities and 4-year colleges (S&E occupations) who are full professors, by race_ethnicity and sex


No One Can Do It Alone
- Partnership Based Solutions

In light of the previously mentioned figures, a number of organizations have risen up to brazenly challenge the disaffecting status-quo.  One particularly encouraging trend has been the growing number of partnerships formed between a number of non-profit organizations and after-school advocacy programs.  This model is a particularly encouraging one when quantitatively measured.

The efficacy of improving student Math scores made possible by the implementation of after school programs is affirmed through a study by the Institute of Education Sciences’ National Center for Educational Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEERA).   In their evaluation of “Enhanced Academic Instruction in After-School Programs” in their 2009 report, a review of student test scores in 15 of their participating centers, the NCEERA found that when students received an additional 48 hours of Math instruction over a year-long period resulted in an increase of 3.5 scaled score points in SAT 10 total math scores- a statistically significant number.

The AfterSchool Alliance is one organization, among many, working to expand access to after-school education across the United States.  Established in 2000 through a public/private partnership between the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, J.C. Penney Company, Inc., the Open Society Institute/The After-School Corporation, the Entertainment Industry Foundation and the Creative Artists Agency Foundation, the AfterSchool Alliance stands as an example of how public/private partnerships help to positively shape realities on the ground.  Their “Afterschool in Action” blog series documents the successes of effective programs nationwide, with the latest blog post honoring the many female focused afterschool programs, highlighting programs working to energize young women to succeed in STEM related subjects.

Among the organizations highlighted, courtesy of Ramya Sankar‘s post are the following:

  • “Art2STEM-  which promotes STEM related subjects through art in Nashville, TN. Through activities like creating animations and architectural design, the programming focuses on creativity and showing how the arts complement STEM fields. As part of Alignment Nashville’s Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) grant from NSF, the afterschool program exposes girls to various STEM topics through these hands-on activities as well as field trips to local tech businesses.
  Photo courtesy of Dell
  • GirlStart – Located in Austin, TX, GirlStart offers afterschool programs, summer camps and various outreach events throughout the year in Central Texas to encourage and inspire girls to consider science as an option and equipping them with STEM skills. GirlStart received NSF funding to create Project IT Girl—highlighted in our report on outcomes and impacts of STEM learning in afterschool—which exposes high school girls to computer programming and provides them with experience working with a local tech company. Girls are also connected with female STEM professionals during the Girls in STEM Conference for 4th-8th graders where they learn about STEM careers.
  • SciTech – Started by the Ruben H. Fleet Center in San Diego, CA, SciTech participants work on projects throughout the school year that focus on their problem solving skills. The afterschool program is offered at eight elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. Girls work on projects in subjects ranging from renewable energy sources to food chemistry. Students also participate in The Tech Challenge, sponsored by the Tech Museum in San Jose, CA.  Local female STEM professionals also  come and do presentations and interact with students to serve as role models.”

Meanwhile, organizations like The National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) are engaged nationwide (USA) to support programs like those previously mentioned, by integrating them within their vast networks of support.  Others like the volunteer based BlackGirlsCode organize “Code Camps” for young women of color, imparting 21st century skills while engaging members of their community directly.  Others focus their engagement online, like the Steminist, who through social media and the internet work to increase awareness and visibility of successful programs for others to learn from.

What programs like BlackGirlsCode, GirlStart, SciTech & Art2STEM offer to students, schools and members of their community, are successful models of public/private partnership that deserve to be emulated, because no one can do it alone.  Unfortunately, more often than not, non-profit organizations simply don’t have the resources to fund-raise while simultaneously focusing on delivering results on the ground.

Regardless of how organizations focus their efforts, by joining forces with fellow members of the educational sector, partnerships can be formed to deliver the next generation of innovative products that increase accessibility to students, with the opportunity to be supported by third party sponsors.  The responsibility of educating the next generation of  professionals, is one we all share in one capacity or another.  Whether we are parents, educators, school administrators, industry leaders or philanthropists at heart- each of us can do our part to encourage our daughters and sisters to achieve.  In doing so, we not only have a hand in shaping our future but ensure a stronger economy and globally competitive workforce, where we all have a chance to succeed.

“Excuse me, there’s a Cloud in my Web…”

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Last month I briefly wrote about a number of trends to keep an eye on the educational technology.  Cloud computing is a specific type of technological development that’s fairly mainstream despite a lack of widespread knowledge of what the term “cloud computing” actually means.

What Is It?
By referring to a “cloud” the idea, in essence, is referring to an entity existing seemingly in thin air, very much the way the Internet is perceived to operate.  In fact, Judith Hurwitz, Robin Bloor, Marcia Kaufman, and Fern Halper of Dummies.com refer to the cloud computing as the “the next stage in the Internet’s evolution”.  Noting that it makes possible everything “from computing power to computing infrastructure, applications, business processes to personal collaboration” the most critical element of which is its ability to “be delivered to you as a service wherever and whenever you need” through the Internet.

Is this how you imaged cloud computing? You're almost there!

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How To – Turn Your Ailing School Around

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Ten years ago, New York City’s Intermediate School 339 (IS339) was home to the type of learning environment one might expect from an inner-city school in a low-income neighborhood.  Located in the Claremont district of the Bronx, this middle school struggled to meet the educational needs of its 945 students.  Nearly 85% of students qualified for free or reduced cost lunch, with 28% enrolled in the English as a second language program.  One assessment of the school showed that only 9% of students were testing to the appropriate grade level in math.  Teachers struggled to keep kids engaged, often failing to do so thanks to an immense lack of resources.  Boredom among the student body meant that fights and gang activity were also common. “Walking through the hallways, it felt like at any moment chaos was gonna break out.” However all of that would change when one man realized that the “light at the end of the tunnel might [just] be a laptop screen.”
Image by IB Times.

"We make school make more sense for them when we provide them with the opportunity to use technology." Jason Levy

The State of Education

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Photo by ABC News.

"Challenges remain. And we know how to solve them."

Last Tuesday on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama delivered the penultimate State of the Union of his first term.  In previous editions of this historic annual speech, education has been somewhat overshadowed by other domestic issues such as the ailing economy and the fate of the middle class.  However, scholastic issues figured largely into Tuesday’s speech, as a range of shortcomings in education were connected with the untapped potential of the American workforce – the products of a flawed education system.  Sara Ferguson, a teacher from Pennslyvania who was invited to attend the speech, was pleased to see that Obama made the connection between education and the United States’ economic issues. “We need more politicians to realize that quality public education is the way to economic recovery.”  Continue reading →

Eyes On : Roger Schank

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In the mid 1980s, the course of longtime educator Roger Schank’s career changed forever.  A professor of computer science and Artificial Intelligence (AI), he radically shifted focus when his own children began their careers as students.  His professional work up to that point had been devoted to developing a successful system by which computers could be programed to learn.  When his children entered the education system he noticed that, while he was trying to teach computers how to learn, the schools were merely teaching his children how to pass.  Schank became increasingly horrified with how little learning actually occurred in these supposedly “educational” environments and devoted the rest of his life to correcting this fundamental problem.  The solution, he believes, is learning with computers.

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Trends of the Tomorrow- Today!

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2011 was a big year in the advancement of technology with consequences, intended -or otherwise- impacting the educational sector with ripples quickly becoming waves.  The Ipad tablet has transcended being the plaything in bourgeois households of the upper class and are now making their presence -and more importantly utility- in schools a thing of the present with every passing day.  Take the Eufala primary school in Alabama, USA as a prime example, where children at the pre-Kindergarten level have access to and learn interactively through Ipads which as Tiffiny Woo notes
“prepare(s) students to (be able to ) navigate (through) a technologically centered society”.

Ashlyn Darby helps Melea Brooks with an iPad app.

Kindle, like the Ipad has also revolutionized the consumption of books through digital formats, with Amazon.com noting for the first time “in July that the sale of digital books outpaced that of traditional hard copy publishing, selling 143 digital books for every 100 hardback from May through July -the rate reaching 180 e-books for every 100 hardbacks in the last four weeks (of July) alone“.

With January nearly half finished, I thought it was time I contribute my two cents on upcoming trends in education, technology and how their deepening relationship would come to impact classrooms this year.  These are trends and stories I’ll be returning to and fleshing out further, but I thought I’d get my ideas out there while they’re still hot!

1. Regulatory regimes to govern the emergence of Virtual Schools.
As the United States moves inches closer to the upcoming 2012 election, expect education reform to make a return of sorts to the national spotlight.  Nearly two years ago Florida became the country’s first laboratory for education reform, making 2011 the year for virtual education.  Unfortunately, while the fight for education reform is pitting proponents of blended/hybrid education against teachers unions, what is resulting is a greater array of educational tools available to the student.  As this market grows, so too is the inexorable march towards a concrete set of regulatory rules for a massive and largely untapped market that’s worth billions.
The Colorado board of Education has already voted on instilling a set of educational regulations, which traditional brick-and-mortar schools currently face.  This is but one example of how government regulations are beginning to codify a set of standards for student learning in virtual schools.  This is a sign of the times, with necessary rules in place to ensure students receive an education that is comparable in the least, to traditional schools within an industry that has virtually -pardon the pun- exploded.

2- Open Source University Programs
Late last year the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced that the university was expanding the array of open source courses it was providing, courses that are free and available for anyone interested in the classes offered- with a certificate of completions provided to any enrolled MIT student who completes a number of courses. This comes on the heels of news that Stanford University has provided similar courses – such as Software as a Service,Computer Science 101, Machine Learning, Cryptography, Natural Language Processing, Human Computer Interaction, Design and Analysis of Algorithms I, and Probabilistic Graphic Models, which are both free and open source.

3- Apple readies their foray into Digital Textbooks
The internet is already abuzz in anticipation of what exactly Apple has in store with news of their upcoming announcement.  Early reports “by sites such as Ars Technica hint that Apple will unveil a textbook version of its Garageband music software – a ‘book creation kit’ that will make it easy for publishers, or teachers, to add video, music and images to text.” This may do what Garageband and Pro-Tools did to the production of music- made it accessible to the public.  In doing so, Apple is ready to “disrupt” an $8 billion dollar market, one Steve Jobs said was “ripe for digital destruction”.  I don’t want to place too much of a weight on Apple’s share of the market, but news of technology that would empower educators, at the expense of traditional publishing, is news that will definitely make waves.  We’ll know definitively what Apple is up to when their plans are finally unveiled at the New York Guggenheim on January 18th, 2012.

4- Move to Cloud Computing
In the same vein a Dropbox changed the way information is stored or how SoundCloud forever altered the way music is heard, disseminated and experienced, Cloud Computing is set to alter the educational landscape in a way that is set to bring educators, students and administrators together like never before.  The concept of “clouds” is well elaborated on in the YouTube video Cloud Computing Explained with the Shankerblog delving deeper into what this might mean for educational institutions in general.  Consolidating the information students need through “clouds” would facilitate students’ ability to learn anywhere, providing students and teachers the ability to interact and collaborate in ways that will enhance learning.Image from Flickr
While troubling to some, cloud computing would also contribute to the development of “learning analytics”, qualitative metrics taken from student activity, time spent on work, and student grade outcomes in ways that could help us understand the process of learning in ways we haven’t be able to before.  This does present questionable issues, consolidating student information at the expense of student privacy.  However, just the possibility of what cloud computing presents is an exciting prospect for researchers of education pedagogy helping further understand how best students learn.

5- Handheld Mobile Devices will Democratize Advances in Education Technology
For those of you who follow MathQuack on Twitter, you know how excited we were for UNESCO’s “Mobile Learning Week” seminar in New York earlier in the year.  For nations in the developing world, governments often don’t have the money to invest in infrastructure  like telephone lines -let along broadband- that are critical in allowing citizens a means to access the educational tools the internet has helped to disseminate.  The UNESCO Mobile Learning Week website has a great collection of the presentations that seminar played host to, giving you a good idea of how much of an impact the use of mobile devices have worldwide; “Mobile Technologies, Education and Socio-Economic Development by Stephane Boyera” in particular.

Photo courtesy of Pallavi Sharma's post "Africans use mobiles as multi-functional devices: MIT conference" Apr 03, 2011 via http://www.computernewsme.com

The Massai of Kenya logging on via handheld device

Stephane Boyera of the World Wide Web Foundation, a participant of the “Mobile Learning Week” notes that in “the mobile is often referred to as the computer of Africa”.  This was at the heart of what made Mobile Learning Week so exiting; increased access of learning applications that expand.  This isn’t as critical of a medium in learning as it is in the developing world, however attitudes are quickly changing with regard to their utility in the classroom, with many schools becoming increasingly accepting of students who “Bring Their Own Technology” or BYOT.  Take the Notre Dame de Sion High School in Kansas City as an example of how school attitudes are changing, making 2012 a year for greater integration of education technology in and out of the classroom.

And so we keep a keen eye to developments on the horizon of 2012, with ones we listed as those we think will be shaking up the industry.   Think we left some out?  Let us know which developments you’ve got your eye on and join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter!

 

Adapt or Die; Textbooks Slowly Go Digital

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An article published a couple weeks ago in the “Special Report on Education” by the New York Times’ Christopher F. Schuetze, shared some interesting news on shifting currents in blended technology in classrooms of the future.

Photo by Joshua Lott of The New York Times

I noted on twitter some months back of South Korea’s decision to switch to digital textbooks,  a $2 billion dollar investment, beckoning a reconsideration of digital education worldwide and possibilities for the future.  Within a couple of weeks of this news, Idaho began accepting bids from the private sector to provide a laptop to every teacher and high school student in their public education system.  Today, it appears that California too is heeding the call for digital textbooks by legislating a 25 million dollar investment to create 50 new textbooks that would be “free in digital form or $20 in print”.

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The Changing Face of Homeschooling Communities

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Thirty years ago, according to Michael Smith, President of the Home School Legal Defense Association, there were “only an estimated 20,000 homeschooled children (in the United States)”(HomeSchooling Community Grows Beyond 2 Million, 2011).  As of ten years ago that number grew to approximately 850,000 children whose parents chose to provide their education at home; today that number stands closer to 2 million (Homeschooling, 2011).

In the past, that number was usually reflective of a predominantly Christian movement; parents who opted to provide a stronger religious component to their children’s education than the public school system could constitutionally provide (Home Schooling Grows in Popularity in America; 2011). According to the US Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), the choice to educate children at home for religious reasons had increased from 72% to 83% from 2003 to 2007 (1.5 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2007; 2008). So in this regard, not much has changed.  Of the number of households who opted to homeschool their children, religious or moral reasons continue to be their highest concern.  So while this trend continues, it’s but one slice of an ever-growing pie.

The NCES study reports a marked rise of “the homeschooling rate (from 1.7% in 1999 to 2.2% in 2003 to 2.9% in 2007) represent(ing) a 74% relative increase over (an) 8-year period… a 36% relative increase since 2003 alone”.   While the majority of parents who chose to educate their children at home for religious factors remain to be the majority of respondents (36%); it’s a majority made up of just 1/3 of those asked.
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