Monday, September 30, 2002

New Research Disputes Value of Computers in Classrooms

The Boston Globe's Hiawatha Bray writes about the Maine laptop initiative and new research from an MIT study that "casts doubt on whether such access to computers will help children learn." In Questions arise over laptops' use as learning tool, Bray reports on a study that "found that the deployment of 35,000 computers in Israeli primary and middle schools in the mid-1990s did not result in higher student scores on standardized achievement tests."

While many readers of Educators' News and my columns know that I am heavily into using technology in the classroom, I welcome columns such as the one above by Hiawatha Bray and the research it describes. I'm pretty well convinced that computers are used as effective teaching tools in my classroom, but can also readily agree with the question posed in the column above and others: Would the money spent on computers be better spent on more teachers and teaching assistants, thus reducing class size?

The current round of technology spending at my school was triggered by a state and federal special education grant (IDEA) that was specifically targeted at technology. In other words, we never would have gotten the money if we hadn't pledged to use it for technology in our special education programs. Short term, the same amount of dollars wisely invested in increased staffing at my school would have paid far more benefits for the learning of my kids than the computers and software we have purchased. Long term, the money spent on increased staffing is quickly gone with only the improved learning of the students to show for it. With technology purchases, you still have the computers and software (and in our case, the wireless infrastructure) for years afterward. But that argument must also be considered in the light of technology rapidly outdating itself,

The arguments go round and round over technology in the classroom. I suspect that the individual needs of each classroom, school, and system might dictate what an appropriate level of technology in each area might be. I know that how teachers use technology is critical to its success in the classroom. We've all heard or seen examples of tons of money wasted on computers just so a school could say, "We have technology." Adequate staff training and the freedom to choose platform and software that address student needs are critical areas that continue to be ignored by schools in their headlong stampede to acquire technology.

Excellent Columns by Jay Mathews

Jay Mathews, a Washington Post education writer, delivered a couple of good columns last week. In Private Schools Pressured for Data, Mathews tells of the difficulty for reporters and others in getting data from private schools. He notes that with public funds now reaching private schools via vouchers and other programs, those schools should be required to report test scores, teacher qualifications and graduation rates, as public schools do now.

In his weekly Class Struggle column, Mathews gives a unique review of Deborah Meier's In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization. Mathews, who believes standardized testing is necessary to keep America focused on helping the schools of the poor, tells of Meiers's opposition to the current national mania for accountability through testing in A Champion in the Fight Against Testing Standards.

If you haven't guessed already from previous postings, I think Jay Mathews is one of the very best educational columnists around the country. He's knowledgeable and dedicated to keeping the needs of disadvantaged students in the news. His writing style is engaging and easy to read. And...this is one of his better columns. The following excerpt should whet your appetite:

One of the advantages of reviewing books on my own is that I am perfectly free (as I would not be if I were writing this for a respectable book review page) to call up the author and pick a fight. I tried this with Meier. She called me right back from Boston to gleefully slap me around and help me see the core of her argument.

 

Essentially, she has higher hopes for schools than I do. I think we need standards and tests because they are, at worst, a mild annoyance to the best teachers but essential to keeping an eye on the worst teachers, and allowing administrators to rush help to trouble spots. Meier thinks--and she has years of experience with low-income students to prove her point--that such kids can learn the way graduate students do, in small seminars, debating key points with learned and enthusiastic teachers and researching questions of their own choosing. They can be assessed by independent panels who look at their writings and sit with them for an hour or so asking questions that need much more of an answer than filling in a small rectangle on a computer score sheet with a number two pencil.

Space Camp to Close?

Say it ain't so! The Titusville, Florida, Space Camp and its companion Astronaut's Hall of Fame have fallen into foreclosure and were auctioned off last Wednesday to the bank that had foreclosed on a $1.8 million mortgage. On Friday, Delaware North, the operator of the sprawling Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, bought the two ventures, but it appears Space Camp will be closed. A Los Angeles Times column from last Wednesday, Camp Falls From Orbit and Into Foreclosure, gives some of the reasons for the failure of the attraction. It appears that the Huntsville, Alabama, location of the same name will remain open. Of course, the 1986 film, Space Camp, remains on sale daily at Amazon.com:-).

California Exit Exam Challenged

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Nanette Asimov writes about an independent evaluation of the California's exit exam in 90% of disabled kids flunk exit exam. Asimov tells of attorney Sid Wolinsky's lawsuit against the state on behalf of California's 173,470 disabled high school students. Wolinsky is quoted as calling the exam "disaster in the making" for disabled students.

IDEA Reauthorization News

The New York Times Diana Jean Schemo has a good column about the coming reauthorization of the special education law in Modest Changes Seen for Special Education. Schemo notes that fears of a Bush Administration attempt to dismantle special ed as it is known now have passed and members of Congress seem to be working toward consensus on a new law. Funding for special education and how to handle disruptive or dangerous students are still contentious issues.

An Edison School's Startup

Sara Rimer has an interesting column about the start of school at Morton McMichael Elementary School in Philadelphia, More Chaotic Start, More Orderly Student. Morton McMichael is one of the twenty schools taken over by Edison Schools, Inc. Rimer delivers some interesting quotes from Morton McMichael students and some refreshingly candid views from the principal of the school.

Crowded High Schools

The Washington Post's Nancy Trejos has a good column about overcrowding in high schools today in Crowded Classrooms, Creative Scheduling. She writes that good planning for future high schools is especially important as "High schools cost a lot of money to build -- typically $30,000 a seat, compared with $17,000 a seat for elementary schools."

Software Updates

Mike Bombich has updated Carbon Copy Cloner to include Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) compatibility. Carbon Copy Cloner is a easy-to-use utility for transferring Mac OS X installations from one drive or computer to another. Version 1.4 (783K) runs under OS 10.2, but can clone any version of OS X. Version 1.3.1 (394) is still available and runs under and will clone OS X versions up to but not including 10.2 (i.e., 10.1.5). Previously, Mike had listed Carbon Copy Cloner as a shareware. He now lists it as "donation-ware (uncrippled shareware)," with the additional note, "Please note that if you using CCC for an educational institution, you should NOT donate to Bombich Software. My heart is in Education and all software that I write shall always be free to Education."

Carbon Copy Cloner became a vital part of my efforts to set up and use a cart of twenty-four iBooks at school this year. I tried using Retrospect initially, but found it didn't clone well over our network (which I believe the documentation clearly states:-(. CCC became my tool of choice for cloning our setup for the classroom after I purchased a 120 gig Firewire drive from Club Mac. As we continually fine tune our OS X "ghost," I transfer it to the bootable Firewire drive and then back to other machines.

America Online continues to tweak their Mac OS X version with beta build 1B21D being released last Friday. The beta must be downloaded inside the AOL environment, using the keyword "beta" or "macbeta." I've not tried the latest release, as I'm still operating under Mac OS 10.1.5, but have found previous betas to be quite stable. It's good to see AOL supporting the Mac side so actively once again.

Devotion For September 29-October 5, 2002

Zach Wood's weekly devotional for this week is A Powerful One-Liner. Zach also maintains an archive of previous devotionals.

If you have suggestions, news ideas, etc., please .

Tuesday, October 1, 2002

eMacs in the Classroom

Scienceman Joe Martha has acquired two new eMacs for his classroom. He's sharing his experiences with them in an eMac integration diary on his Scienceman.com site. Joe has some interesting observations already in his dairy, including his students' first impressions of the new machines and a revealing side-by-side photo of an iMac and an eMac.

Edison Sets Up Shop in Indy

While I have been busy posting all sorts of news items from around the country about Edison Schools, Inc., I found today that they've set up shop practically right under my nose. Perry Township in Indianapolis has turned over one school to Edison for this year and plans to do the same with a second school next fall. School starts under private management in the Indianapolis Star tells of the first Edison school in Indiana.

Star staffer Bill McCleery becomes almost euphoric in describing Jeremiah Gray-Edison Elementary School and its dress code of khaki pants or skirts and solid-color shirts, take-home laptop computers, hands-on science experiments, and a required foreign language for all. It sounds as if Edison has pulled out all stops to get off to a good start in Indiana. It would have been really interesting if Mr. McCleery had bothered to get the impressions of those not enthusiastic about the privatization of schools in Indiana. But...that's generally not what the Indianapolis Star is about. Take it from a Hoosier!

One-Room Schools?

Associated Press writer Megan Boldt has a really interesting posting about one-room schools in North Dakota and the controversy over whether or not to force consolidation of those schools. North Dakota Fights Over One-Room Schools may be a real eye-opener for you if you thought, like me, that the one-room school was a thing of the past in America. North Dakota still has eight one-room schools. However, these schools offer computers with internet access, microwave ovens, television and VCRs. "'It's not like they live in a box,' said Horse Creek teacher Trina Holst. 'We have everything any other school has.'"

Computer Cost and Quality

Adam Robert Guha had a timely article that I missed last week on Low-End Mac. In Computer Cost and Quality, Adam describes the lowering of computer quality as companies engage in cutthroat competition. He offers some good buying advice to avoid the quality decline of recent entry-level boxes.

Adam's column struck an empathetic chord with me, as just yesterday I'd marveled that my eleven year old Mac IIfx, which serves as a file server when I set up student take-home machines, failed to start! After figuring out most of the Mac IIfx voodoo a few years ago with the assistance of countless readers, the fx has performed flawlessly, first as a classroom computer, and more recently, as a file server and general toy for me!

I doubt that many of our current high or low end computers will last nearly as long as the nearly bulletproof Mac IIfx. And...it started back up shortly after I figured out the stupid trick I'd done that had taken it down.

New from SchwabLearning.org

This SchwabLearning.org began a new "expert" question and answer series last week. This week, Dr. Kevin Feldman continues answering questions on "how to help older kids who struggle with reading."

• Question 3: Will early intervention solve all reading problems, or are new skills needed after third grade?
• Question 4: What can be done to improve reading speed and comprehension skills?

Also new is a page called LD Fast Facts. As always, links to all of the new and updated SchwabLearning.org articles are available in the Schwab Learning Online Newsletter (link expires 10-6-02).

Virus Definition Updates

It's a new month, so new virus definitions should be posted by all the major antivirus providers.

• Symantec (Mac), (Win) -- Norton Antivirus
• McAfee -- Virex, VirusScan, Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus
• intego -- VirusBarrier
• Computer Associates -- eTrust, InocuLAN, and InoculateIT,
• F-Secure Anti-Virus

Wednesday, October 2, 2002

Certified Teachers or ???

A recent Washington Post column, Who Is and Isn't Qualified to Teach?, is curiously attributed only to "a Washington Post Staff Writer." The column deals primarily with Martin Haberman's assertions that traditional teacher training isn't producing qualified teachers. Haberman developed a series of interview questions that he feels identify the best teaching candidates. In addition, Haberman feels "mature adults who have had one career already and live in the city where they are training" also make the best candidates for future teachers.

The column also paraphrases Education Secretary Rod Paige's recent inflammatory comments of "anyone with expert knowledge of a subject should be able to teach it...that traditional education programs are largely fluff and that state certification qualifications need to be revamped." When I was just about ready to click away from the column in disgust, I read that Haberman feels, "The key to finding enough teachers to help children in poverty, he said, is to identify people who not only know their subjects but also have personal qualities to succeed in classrooms where students come in hungry."

D.C. Schools' Facelift Cost Overruns

Another Post column with the same attribution, D.C. Schools Get a Lesson In Economics, tells of how the Washington, D.C. schools are quickly running out of money in their program to modernize schools. The first nine of Washington D.C.'s 143 schools slated for modernization are costing far more than originally projected and far more than similar projects in surrounding areas.

Rewriting of History Books to Suit States

Richard Rothstein's Lessons column today, Books Often Give History a Facelift, talks about the problem of political factors controlling the content of history textbooks. Rothstein briefly chronicles this practice through the years and notes the current round of revisionism going on in Texas due to special interest groups. He writes:

But today, curriculums are more standardized, especially as we measure all students with similar tests. On the one hand, policy makers want teachers to have more knowledge in the subjects they teach and more skill in deciding how to teach them. On the other, teachers have less freedom to design their lessons.

 

It is unclear which tendency will prevail. But if standardization wins out, political fights like the one in Texas will become ever more influential in determining how the myths and realities of history will be told.

Early Learning Gap

Fredreka Schoute has a short, but interesting piece about how early a learning gap is apparent between the rich and poor in Research shows learning gap starts before kindergarten. Based on an Economic Policy Institute report, "Inequality at the Starting Gate," the column notes that children from poor and "middle-income families lagged far behind their wealthy peers" when entering kindergarten.

.Mac for Schools No Bargain

CNET's Joe Wilcox reports that analysts say Apple is charging too much for their .Mac service, "particularly for cash-strapped schools." In Apple cuts price of .Mac for schools, Wilcox notes that Apple offers a special $59/year .Mac subscription to schools. Wilcox quotes an Apple spokesperson as saying, "Our goal is to provide a cost-effective solution for educators that meets the needs of the classroom. This price is a substantial discount, and we've made it easy to purchase in purchase orders and volume licenses." Wilcox writes, "But for some schools the price could still be too high, particularly when Apple's online services were previously available for free."

October 2 Around Our Neck of the Woods

October 2 is a really special day for our family. First, Scotty and Michele celebrate their third anniversary today. Scott's my oldest son. He, Michele, and our grandson, Caleb, live in Indianapolis.

And Samantha Rose turns 20 today. She's currently in the School of Nursing at Indiana University. While I'd love to dazzle you all with a current photo, the one that came to mind and got pulled up out of the photo archive is at right. Happy Birthday, Sammy!

Friday, October 4, 2002

Boston Tech Launched

Boston Globe staffer Megan Tench tells of the launch of an experimental high tech high school in Boston in City launches pilot school for technology. TechBoston was launched despite budget shortfalls with heavy assistance from private sources, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Boston Foundation, Dell, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Toshiba. The school currently boasts a 4:1 student -faculty ratio. Just seventy-five students make up the initial class, with plans for as many as 300 more students in future years dependent on future funding.

More on Maine Laptop Initiative

Barry Matulaitis has an interesting column in the Original Irregular, SAD 58 embraces laptop program. Matulaitis writes that both students and teachers in the Maine School Administrative District No. 58 seem enthused with the program to supply all of Maine's 7th graders with a new laptop this year.

Inexpensive 14" Monitors Anyone?

One of the struggles in providing each of my part and full-time special education students with a take-home Macintosh computer has been the cost of monitors. (See A Gaggle of LC IIIs: Part 1 and A Gaggle of LC IIIs: Part 2 for a description of the program.) I've been fortunate this year to be able to regularly secure reasonably priced Power Macintosh 7200's to use as the student take-home computers. Until recently, monitors remained a difficult and expensive problem. Sometimes the selling price was just too high, but more often, a combination of the monitor's weight and distant sellers made for a combined price that was out of my budget for a personal give-away program.

I recently ran across an eBay sale that seemed almost too good to be true. The seller offered new 14" Performa Plus displays for $12.99 each! I was wary at first, but couldn't help taking a risk and ordered five of the displays. The Performa Plus is a lightweight display, some ten pound lighter than the comparable Macintosh Color Display that sold at about the same time. The Macintosh Color Display uses a Sony Trinitron CRT, which delivers considerably better picture quality than the Performa Plus, but at a price. All in all, the Performa Plus, at the right price, was an acceptable display for what I'm doing.

The monitors came in last Wednesday...in excellent condition. With one exception, they were in factory sealed boxes and all worked well when tested. I know of at least one or two other teachers and several other folks who run programs similar to mine and thought I'd pass along what seems to be a good deal. With shipping, my displays ran around $25 each. While that quickly adds up to some serious bucks, more for each display than I had invested in each child's total take-home package three years ago, it's still quite a deal.

The seller has a new listing for the displays at the same price that runs through next Thursday (10/10/02). I'm not sure how many more units he has to sell, but got the feeling he'd gladly make a deal outside of an eBay auction if the buyer so desired.

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