Cyber-Bullied Don’t Snitch October 3, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Data, Safety.add a comment
The New York Times has an article about a cyber-bullying study. Turns out most kids who are on the receiving end don’t tell anyone.
Research indicates that as many as 75 percent of teens have been bullied online, but only one in 10 have reported the problem to parents or other adults, a new study shows.
It would be interesting to see if these numbers differ from the experience of those who are bullied in the physical world, but no comparison was mentioned in the article. Popular reasons for not telling an adult ranged included needing to “learn to deal with it”, worrying that Internet access would be cut off, and fear of getting into trouble with parents. Again, it would have been interesting to see how this correlates or not to the physical world experience.
Parents Often Unaware of Cyber-Bullying – Well Blog – NYTimes.com
Are You Smarter Than an 8th Grader? September 16, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Data, Opinion.add a comment
I’m not a big proponent of standardized tests, but maybe because I understand how tests are often constructed, so my results don’t always reflect what I know but rather what I know about the test. Anyway, here are a couple of fun little 10 question tests to take in Math and Science to see how you stack up against 8th graders from around the world. At the end you get to see national scores to see how your 8th graders stacked up. Of course, what is actually stacked remains a subject for discussion. This came by way of a post by Lucy Gray.
Tried to embed the quiz directly in the post, but something keeps getting edited out when I save. Either visit Lucy’s blog (always a good idea) or try this link to take the quiz.
http://www.edin08.com/dataquiz.aspx
Just How Big Is The Internet? July 28, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, Data.add a comment
I’m not sure anyone knows just how big the Internet really is, but Google has crossed a milestone of sorts. They now track over 1 trillion unique web addresses. That’s a 1 with 12 zeros. At this rate, it will still be quite some time before Google hits 1 google addresses. That’s a 1 with 100 zeros. Maybe that is the threshold for a sentient Internet.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/business/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=22182
Instructional Management Systems June 17, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Book Review, Data, Opinion.add a comment
My district is evaluating instructional management systems (IMS) and it brings to mind two thoughts. First, I’m a firm believer that data is not information. Access to data is important, but teachers and administrators need to know what the data is, what it means, and how it should inform their instruction. Data itself is just numbers. So while I applaud the potential for an IMS, we need something to collect all of our data repositories so there can be some intelligible voice from the current volume of noise, I can’t help but think that the missing piece is change in teacher practice. I’m reading Schmoker’s “Results Now” (yes, it’s a book) and if you put in crayola curriculum, you’ll still get crayola results, even with an IMS.
Second, I’m struck by an ongoing conversation in one of my online classes around the issue of online grade books. Teachers seem pretty clear about seeing the benefits of parent (and student) access to assessments and the improvement in communication between the classroom and the home. At the same time, there is a reluctance on the part of some teachers to open up their assessment information. There is concern that it opens up criticism of the assessment practices of the professional educator, and the possibility that parents will complain if their students are not receiving the type of scores they expect their child to earn.
Both of these thoughts are connected. More data is a good thing for everyone involved in the education of our students, but more is still needed. We need to know what the data really is (attendance or standards for example,) how to interpret the data (how to read the details,) and what the data says about changing the learning environment. Data is not information, but it can be helpful in improving achievement. An IMS may be a helpful step, but it won’t by itself solve the problem of moving from a crayola curriculum to a learning environment characterized by rigor, relevance, and relationships.
High Schools at the Tipping Point – The Role of Data May 16, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, Data, Opinion.add a comment
Nice article from Educational Leadership on the current state of high schools. Some of the background information is very helpful. I appreciate the historical perspective when trying to understand complex issues.
When the “modern” high school system was established in the early 20th century, only 10 percent of 14- to 17-year-olds attended high school (National Center for Education Statistics, 2006). It wasn’t until 1918 that all states required children to attend elementary school; in that era, a high school education was a luxury afforded only to upper-income families.
The article goes on to describe three approaches for reform, (1) align what schools expect of students with the demands of college and the workforce, (2) offer a rigorous, option-rich curriculum; personalize learning; and provide necessary supports, and (3) improve instruction by mining data and using digital technologies. The article isn’t real clear about what digital technologies are, or how they might improve instruction other than the role played by data. However, data is not information.
In order for data to inform our instruction, many factors have to be in place.
First, time is of the essence. Teachers don’t have enough of it, so asking them to do the data mining work without enough training (also a time issue) is asking a lot.
Second, data alone isn’t enough. The link from data to teaching is complex. The data has to be interpreted in order to be informative and prescriptive. Do we really know enough about how the individual child is learning to say that a specific result on an assessment or observed progress indicator should require a specific intervention?
Third, time is still of the essence. The time between the assessment or observation and the intervention needs to be measured in seconds, not minutes or hours or days or weeks, or in the case of standardized tests, in months. The time to help a student learn is at the point where the learning is not taking place, not at a time after the assessment is taken, the scan sheets are turned in, the assessments are scored, the results are returned, the committee meets to review the results, the plan is formed about intervention, and the instruction is delivered.
I’m all for informing the craft of our teaching, but it has to meet the needs of the instructor in the classroom, and more importantly, it has to meet the needs of the learner.
10 Million Fans Can’t All Be Wrong March 28, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Data, Tools.1 comment so far
Tech Crunch and others are reporting that Wikipedia has reached a milestone: 10 million articles. That is quite an achievement for something that is free to everyone. On a side note, only 2.3 million of those are in English.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/28/10-millionth-article-written-on-wikipedia/
Cell Phone Number One March 5, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Data.add a comment
Wired News is reporting that a Pew Internet and American Life Project study shows that people would rather keep a cell phone over keeping a land line.
According to Pew, the cell phone is the technological tool its users would have most difficulty giving up, followed by the Internet and television. Landline phones ranked fourth in the latest survey, just above e-mail.
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/T/TECHBIT_CELL_PHONES?
That’s a Lot of Texts March 3, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Data.2 comments
By way of SmartMobs, it looks like texters in 2008 will be averaging about 2 texts per person per day. Add that up (3 billion mobile subscribers) and you get about 2 trillion text messages this year. I’m sure that my own kids are above average in this respect, but still, 2 trillion messages is a lot of reading and writing.
http://www.smartmobs.com/2008/03/03/two-trillion-sms-in-2008/
