I thought I'd write a post to let any readers out there that I'll be posting a bit less over the summer. On June 1st I'll be at a 5-day district training for Language Arts that incorporates literacy, writing and Netbooks all togethe. Near the end of June I'll be attending TIE (Technology in Education) at Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado.
I may have some insights that I will blog about here during the summer months, but mostly I'll be trying to ride my new Giant OCR3 road bike or my mountain bike in the mountains!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Web-olution --> Wolfram Alpha
Get ready to be stunned! Wolfram Alpha will be brought online later today: May 15th, 2009.
Please watch this 13 minute introduction of Wolfram Alpha in action and you'll get a glimpse of a different way we will be using the web to learn and question. Could this be a research tool, YES? I can't wait to start using it. How would you cite it? One thought and concern I'm having about the information it returns is that it might be different over time if you are researching something that's not changing.
With tools like Wolfram Alpha, Wikipedia, Google, and other search engines available what are the essential tools you need to be able to learn from them? If these are in your toolkit are you ready to use them with these essential skills?
- Good spelling ability,(does that even matter anymore?)
- ability to come up with essential questions,
- a desire to learn,
- thirst for knowledge...
Some background - I remember back in the 1980's a very cool math program called Mathematica. It was available on the Apple Macintosh (maybe other platforms too) and it could do so many mind-blowing things graphically to represent data. I only played with it a small bit on a friend's computer, but I was impressed. The author of that program was none other than Stephen Wolfram.
I titled this post "web-olution" because I thought it captured the BIG STEP that Stephen Wolfram has taken with his project Wolfram Alpha. It's using the information on the web in a way that is quite evolutionary; thus, webolution! (I considered wevolution, but it sounds too much like Elmer Fudd - hehehehe).
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
MAPS Reports Reveal?
I'll give this post another title: "Summer Braindeath"
Each spring and fall our students take the MAP test. The MAP test is a computer-based testing system developed by the non-profit NWEA. MAPS stands for Measures of Academic Progress. It is a series of state-aligned computerized adaptive tests that accurately reflect the instructional level of each student and measures growth over time.
It's actually a pretty cool system in that it increases the level of difficulty (grade-level) of questions just to the point where students are able no longer able to correctly answer questions. Using this adaptive approach towards leveling off the questions the program determines the actual grade-level that a student is currently learning.
We completed our school-wide MAP testing for the spring and I was able to view some reports that our Media Specialist, Carol, generated. The particular report I looked at was for reading and it revealed something that is obvious to most of us, but it reinforces something that is good to consider as we head towards our out-of-school summertime... Our students at Euclid showed excellent growth in reading from fall to spring each year, but the progress they make during the school year is lost during the summer months. It's almost like starting over with kids when they return to school. Sure the students are one year older so they should be challenged with harder material than in the spring - I get that, but the number of kids that are considered advanced and/or proficient falls off each year after summer break.
I have a son with autism. He attends a year-round school. For him it is paramount that he receive a steady and uninterrupted stream of instruction year-round. His rate of learning is consistent, but slow. I have to think that our regular education students (and all students) would be better served by a year-round school - if one is to consider the rate of learning only. But of course many people before me have suggested this approach. I'll just start rambling and ranting if I continue with this point, so I'll leave you all with this urgent suggestion and the lesson learned from the MAP test.
Make sure you and your kids are engaged in some kind of reading over the summer. Read a book, go to the library, read magazines, read a newspaper (remember them?), read to your kids, do anything to try to stave off what happens each summer with the gains they made in the past year. The lesson here is that each of us is responsible for our own learning. If we invest some time in the summer months (when it's not "REQUIRED") reading we become active learners. Our minds become engaged in the process and we ourselves start to take responsibility for our own learning. Isn't that what it's all about anyway?
Each spring and fall our students take the MAP test. The MAP test is a computer-based testing system developed by the non-profit NWEA. MAPS stands for Measures of Academic Progress. It is a series of state-aligned computerized adaptive tests that accurately reflect the instructional level of each student and measures growth over time.
It's actually a pretty cool system in that it increases the level of difficulty (grade-level) of questions just to the point where students are able no longer able to correctly answer questions. Using this adaptive approach towards leveling off the questions the program determines the actual grade-level that a student is currently learning.
We completed our school-wide MAP testing for the spring and I was able to view some reports that our Media Specialist, Carol, generated. The particular report I looked at was for reading and it revealed something that is obvious to most of us, but it reinforces something that is good to consider as we head towards our out-of-school summertime... Our students at Euclid showed excellent growth in reading from fall to spring each year, but the progress they make during the school year is lost during the summer months. It's almost like starting over with kids when they return to school. Sure the students are one year older so they should be challenged with harder material than in the spring - I get that, but the number of kids that are considered advanced and/or proficient falls off each year after summer break.
I have a son with autism. He attends a year-round school. For him it is paramount that he receive a steady and uninterrupted stream of instruction year-round. His rate of learning is consistent, but slow. I have to think that our regular education students (and all students) would be better served by a year-round school - if one is to consider the rate of learning only. But of course many people before me have suggested this approach. I'll just start rambling and ranting if I continue with this point, so I'll leave you all with this urgent suggestion and the lesson learned from the MAP test.
Make sure you and your kids are engaged in some kind of reading over the summer. Read a book, go to the library, read magazines, read a newspaper (remember them?), read to your kids, do anything to try to stave off what happens each summer with the gains they made in the past year. The lesson here is that each of us is responsible for our own learning. If we invest some time in the summer months (when it's not "REQUIRED") reading we become active learners. Our minds become engaged in the process and we ourselves start to take responsibility for our own learning. Isn't that what it's all about anyway?
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