US idea of 'cultural literacy' and key facts a child should know arrives in UK What are your views on ED Hirsch? Never heard of him? If so, you're in good company: only a small number of people in the UK have. But you might be well advised to look Hirsch up – his philosophy could be coming to a primary school near you, very soon. Hirschism, if there is such a thing, is spreading fast through the English school system. Two proposed new primary free schools – the West London free school, backed by journalist Toby Young, and the Pimlico Academy primary – are planning to base their lessons on it. Moreover, a new primary curriculum – due to be implemented in 2014 – has Hirsch at its heart. So who is ED Hirsch? Eric Donald Hirsch Junior is an 84-year-old retired professor – originally of English literature – from Virginia. The result was a hugely influential book, first published in 1983, on what he calls Cultural Literacy. Several years ago, Nick Gibb – then shadow minister for schools – came across Hirsch and began reading his books. "Oh, I did not know that. Acorns
Intern Blog | How You Can Be A Thiel Fellow, Too: Interview with Danielle Strachman of the Thiel Fellowship Most of us have heard about the Thiel Fellowship: an innovative program created by brilliant investor Peter Thiel, set on empowering top students to push technological innovation. However, what most of us remember about the Fellowship is that it involves exceptionally brilliant students dropping out of universities like Harvard and MIT in order to pursue more entrepreneurial ideas. We could simply gape at the incredible qualifications of these “drop-outs,”who are programming, creating, and blazing through college courses at the ripe old age of age of…say, 15. Yet, what becomes clear is that their ideas unleashed by funding and support of the Foundation grants are even more amazing than prior accomplishments. Are you salivating yet? Amidst the arguments over “whether dropping out is at all beneficial” or the “intrinsic value of education,” there is undeniable value that can be extracted from understanding the tenets of the Fellowship regardless of age or college situation. Why do so?
cational Psychology: 20 Things Educators Need To Know About How Students Learn Let's All Shed Tears For The Crappy Startups That Can't Raise Any More Money Here’s some stunning, Earth-shattering news: You know all those hundreds of incredibly stupid startups that have been raising seed money in Silicon Valley despite the fact that the people running those startups have no experience doing anything, ever, and have no idea at all how to generate revenue (let alone profit) with their lousy ideas, because, in fact, there is no way to make money with their lousy ideas, because in fact their ideas are lousy? Well, nobody wants to give those dopes any more money. So now they're going to go out of business. I know. Shocking. And the dopey angel investors who wrote the checks for those startups are going to lose their money. Believe it or not this is actually a big story in Silicon Valley right now. But who didn’t see this coming? How could this have ended in anything but a train wreck? We're Shocked -- Shocked! And remember when there supposedly was no bubble? I’m sorry but the whole thing is hilarious. A Confederacy of Dunces What Happens Now? Yeah.
How do you stop online students cheating? 31 October 2012Last updated at 12:44 ET By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent WATCH: Online university courses are growing rapidly, but how can they be sure who is really answering the questions? Imagine taking a university exam in your own home, under the watchful eye of a webcam or with software profiling your keystrokes or your syntax to see whether it really is you answering the questions. Online university courses have become the Next Big Thing for higher education, particularly in the United States, where millions of students have signed up for courses from some of the most upmarket universities. With spiralling costs and student loan debts crossing the trillion dollar barrier this year, the online university has been seen as a way of reaching many more people for much less money. But a major stumbling block has been how such digital courses are assessed. When students are at home how do you know whether they are cheating? Home exams Online identity “Start Quote Honour code
Ethiopian kids hack OLPCs in 5 months with zero instruction What happens if you give a thousand Motorola Zoom tablet PCs to Ethiopian kids who have never even seen a printed word? Within five months, they'll start teaching themselves English while circumventing the security on your OS to customize settings and activate disabled hardware. Whoa. The One Laptop Per Child project started as a way of delivering technology and resources to schools in countries with little or no education infrastructure, using inexpensive computers to improve traditional curricula. What the OLPC Project has realized over the last five or six years, though, is that teaching kids stuff is really not that valuable. Yes, knowing all your state capitols how to spell "neighborhood" properly and whatnot isn't a bad thing, but memorizing facts and procedures isn't going to inspire kids to go out and learn by teaching themselves, which is the key to a good education. But that's not what OLPC did. "We left the boxes in the village. Via MIT
The six secrets of a happy classroom - Schools - Education Apparently it is the same minority of top pupils, usually sitting at the front, who raise their hands to answer questions, while the majority switch off and opt out. According to the education expert Professor Dylan Wiliam, this ingrained, almost sacrosanct, classroom habit is widening the achievement gap in our schools. "Only a quarter of pupils consistently put their hands up," he says. "They can't wait to take part, while others switch off completely." Some sort of randomisation process is required, Wiliam long ago decided, and his unorthodox solution, as demonstrated in a new BBC2 series, The Classroom Experiment (part of the channel's very welcome School Season of programmes), is to write the pupils' names down on lollipop sticks, the teacher then pulling them at random from a pot. A former maths and science teacher turned teacher-trainer, Wiliam, along with Paul Black, wrote the seminal book on classroom assessment, Inside the Black Box. Hence the lollipop sticks.
Use Google Forms to Make Grading More Efficient I have been using Google Forms for a little over a year now. I originally used it in some basic ways like making a websearch assignments, but this past semester I “fell in love” and slightly became obsessed with Google Forms as a rubric. I now use google forms for every rubric! It gets easier as you create them because then you always have them to modify and adapt! I have used Google forms in multiple ways this year: from creating rubrics for projects, to student information logs, to contact with parents, rubrics, and even grading homework assignments. Having all this information on one Google form spreadsheet can save me time and frustration. Video Introduction to Google Forms: Watch the video to make rubrics and save valuable time! Tips Here are some links to some useful forms I created. Timeline- rubricGlog- rubricDBQ essay- rubric Thematic Essay- rubric Guest Speaker- formHow I keep track of student and parent contactCurrent event blog post rubric
11 Reasons Teachers Should Make Their Own Videos The Busy Person’s Guide To Social Media How To Get Involved in the Peeragogy Project Hello and welcome! The peeragogy project was kicked off around the time of Howard Rheingold’s January 23, 2012 Regents Lecture at UC Berkeley on Social Media and Peer Learning: From Mediated Pedagogy to Peeragogy. We have put together a handbook about peer learning: you’re reading it — maybe on our website, or in your hammock with the beverage of your choice and our print on demand paperback. But: there’s still more work to be done. What you do here is largely up to you. The goal we have in mind for our book is for it be a useful guide to peer learning! It’s up to you. We regularly use Google+, Google Hangouts, forums, and email to communicate asynchronously and pretty much continuously. In short: here’s how it works: Questions? If you have questions, that’s good! Post Revisions:
Learning in a Digital Age - extending higher education opportunities for lifelong learning View or download the publication (PDF )1 View the publication in ePub format2 View the publication in Kindle format3 View or download the publication in text only format (PDF )4 Order print copies5 An increasing number of students are benefiting from education later in life, bringing diverse experiences, skills and needs and adding value to employers and society. What the publication offers Aimed at individuals in further and higher education who have an interest in lifelong learning: academic staff, lecturers, tutors, learning support staff, learning technologists, and information, advice and guidance professionals, the publication signposts some of the effective higher education practice taking place in the UK and addresses the benefits and challenges that arise in a digital age. The eleven institutional case studies have been aligned against the following themes: Learning in a Digital Age is the latest in the Effective Practice series from the JISC e-Learning Programme. Tables and diagrams
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