E-books offer parents another solution for lost books

It happens a few times a year around our house.  A child has an English class assignment due the next day, but has either lost the relevant book or forgotten it at school.  (I'm talking about novels and other guided reading, not textbooks.)  Our options used to be to hope the local library was open and had an available copy of the book or to check the local bookstore*.  Now with ebooks we have another option to download the book instantly.  We have a Kindle and an iPod Touch, but of course an iPad, Nook or other e-readers would serve as well.

Within a few years, it's possible most reading will probably be done on on e-readers.  What will we do when our child loses his Kindle?

* Not such a good solution since our local bookstore shut down last month.

Robots will take over writing?

Although I am reluctant to admit it, this seems like a no-brainer.  From NPR comes news that a software program generated a better story than the one produced by a human reporter, who wrote a sports article in which he failed to highlight how the featured college baseball match was the first perfect NCAA game since 2002.  When the robot had a chance to do a rewrite and appropriately emphasized the story's noteworthy aspect, it was deemed to be a superior article.

Narrative Science provided the robot article.

We Turn Data Into Stories

Narrative Science transforms data into high-quality editorial content. Our technology application generates news stories, industry reports, headlines and more — at scale and without human authoring or editing. Narratives can be created from almost any data set, be it numbers or text, structured or unstructured.

Whether you maintain your own proprietary database, or cover subjects supported by broadly available data including public data sources, our technology cost-effectively turns facts and figures into compelling stories in real time.

They offer "Long & short form articles, headlines, summaries & more".  Hmm, I wonder how much Narrative Science charges to write blog posts . . .

The combination of a strong teacher with Khan Academy - too good to be true?

A pilot program of "blended" or "hybrid" instruction that brings Khan Academy into the classroom:

To teach mathematics, schools in Los Altos, California, are piloting use of Khan Academy videos and online tools, which have replaced traditional textbooks and homework in two fifth-grade and two seventh-grade classrooms. Teachers say the change has brought huge benefits.

Here's a full description from the lasdandkhanacademy blog.

In Los Altos School District, we are constantly striving to improve instruction to meet the needs of all learners and prepare all K-8 students to thrive in our rapidly changing global community. In the continual quest to improve instruction, we are investigating new instructional delivery models and are currently piloting the use of Khan Academy as a hybrid-learning model in a few math classes across the district (two 5th grade classes, and two 7th grade pre-algebra readiness classes). In our pilot, Khan Academy is being utilized as a complement to our current math program.

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere. It currently consists of over 1800 videos covering content in math and science one concept at a time. Concepts are arranged on a “Knowledge Map” which builds from the most basic mathematical concept to more complex concepts covered in high school calculus. Each concept is presented in digestible 10-15 minute video segments followed by practice exercises and tutorials. The software suggests next steps for students and provides teachers with a wealth of individualized student data on both concepts mastered and areas of struggle. With the use of Khan Academy as a hybrid-learning model, students are able to work through new material at their own pace during a portion of every math class. Teachers are able to use the data generated through Khan Academy to group students according to their instructional need and provide targeted math instruction.

Piloting Khan Academy provides us a unique opportunity to explore 21st century learning with our students by leveraging technology to differentiate instruction to meet the individualized learning needs of all students. We are fortunate to have formed a phenomenal partnership with Khan Academy and are excited by the potential differentiated learning opportunities for students that will develop as a result of this partnership.

The foregoing description is full of flowery edu-jargon, but there's no denying that Khan provides a superb way to track individual student progress.

Your classroom data...finally

 

Teachers and coaches can access all of their students' data. You can get a summary of class performance as a whole or dive into a particular student's profile to figure out exactly which topics are problematic. The class profile lets coaches glance at their dashboard and quickly figure out how to best spend their time teaching.

We've put a lot of energy into making sure that the Khan Academy empowers teachers by giving them access to the data they should've had for years. You'll know instantly if a student is struggling in multiplying fractions...or if she hit a streak and is now far ahead of the class.

But can the Los Altos School District gain efficiency and raise achievement levels?  A quick search found this meta-analysis:

The United States Department of Education reported recently that it's found some evidence to support the notion that blended learning is more effective than either face to face or online learning by themselves. Further, between online and face to face instruction, online is at least as good and may even have the advantage in terms of improving student achievement and potentially expanding the amount of time (and quality time) students spend learning.

Powerful potential - Here are some pulls from Bill Gates' appearance on NBC Nightly News.

The cutting edge of where education is going...

Kids like to move at their own pace...

We need to do a better job...

Teachers will always be important.  What Sal’s engaged in right now is working with teachers to see where they can use his material to relieve them of a lot of things.  And his interactive parts can track and the teachers can see is this kid behind, is this kid ahead.  It can help the teacher organize the class.  So the power of a combination of a strong teacher together with these resources, I see that as making a huge difference.

From The Gates Notes, here are some videos of Los Altos school administrators, teachers and students talking about the Khan Academy pilot.

And, Khan Academy is FREE! 

(I haven't read this yet, but here's more on blended learning:  http://educationnext.org/future-schools/) 

"pipelines" vs. knowledge in the classroom

In the debate between skills-focused vs. content-focused, cognitive psychology tells us that content wins.

E.D. Hirsch, Jr. says:

”a coherent and cumulative early curriculum will raise in a systematic way the knowledge and the language of our students to a much higher level, and greatly narrow the unacceptable achievement gap between blacks and whites and between other demographic groups.” 

Not this so much:

“Rather than a common curriculum, learning platforms to come will support not just ‘multiple pathways’ but customized playlists.  Customized learning will be facilitated by comprehensive learning platforms surrounded by application and service ecosystems. Learning platforms will replace today’s learning management systems (LMS) that run flat and sequential courseware.  Like iPhone and Android, these platforms will unleash investment and innovation.  --  Tom Vander Ark

A "coherent and cumulative" curriculum is often lost in the push to employ the latest technology in our schools.

Robert Pondisco in The Core Knowledge Blog

Related:  http://educationquicktakes.blogspot.com/2011/03/average-us-teen-sends-3339-texts-month.html

"average U.S. teen sends 3,339 texts a month"

Kids write more, gain ease with language, through texting is the story's headline.  I question if the quality of their writing improves.

The Nielsen Company recently found that the average U.S. teen sends 3,339 texts a month — more than six during every waking hour. Teen females lead the way with 4,050 texts per month....

I would agree that texting helps develop certain language skills:

"Adolescents may not consider their writing to be writing, but it takes skill and creativity in order to manipulate language so you can be understood by your peers," Turner said. "They can experiment with language, have a unique voice and be part of a community."...
Many educators have quickly concluded they need to understand how kids communicate and, rather than scoffing at texting, actively help students switch between different modes of writing."If students know that you understand their text language, they listen to you," said Maureen Lindell, an English teacher at Eastchester High School. "Then we can say, 'This is the language you use with your friends, and this is the language you use in school,' " she said.

And then there's this problem:

Westlake Middle School teacher Christine Silidigan said that some students definitely acquire bad habits from texting, like skipping capital letters and commas and using the wrong forms of words."So instead of discussing important aspects to help a writer grow, we're spending our time undoing all the bad habits formed with texting," she said.

This is hard to believe.

"The research has shown that the best texters are the best spellers and that texting actually improves literacy skills," he wrote.

In fact, I did not find anything specific in this article that shows improved literacy skills were caused by more texting.  Perhaps it is simply a correlation with no causation.  Higher income children are more likely to own mobile phones and computers, so they are more likely to be heavy texters.  And higher income generally correlates with higher literacy skills.

Among the young, blogging is in decline because . . . writing is just too hard

Kim Hou, a high school senior in San Francisco, said she quit blogging months ago, but acknowledged that she continued to post fashion photos on Tumblr. “It’s different from blogging because it’s easier to use,” she said. “With blogging you have to write, and this is just images. Some people write some phrases or some quotes, but that’s it.”

Here are some numbers.

The Internet and American Life Project at the Pew Research Center found that from 2006 to 2009, blogging among children ages 12 to 17 fell by half; now 14 percent of children those ages who use the Internet have blogs. Among 18-to-33-year-olds, the project said in a report last year, blogging dropped two percentage points in 2010 from two years earlier...
While the younger generation is losing interest in blogging, people approaching middle age and older are sticking with it. Among 34-to-45-year-olds who use the Internet, the percentage who blog increased six points, to 16 percent, in 2010 from two years earlier, the Pew survey found. Blogging by 46-to-55-year-olds increased five percentage points, to 11 percent, while blogging among 65-to-73-year-olds rose two percentage points, to 8 percent.

I feel like a dinosaur.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/technology/internet/21blog.html?src=me&ref=general

“The kids have taken over the e-readers,”

This seems like a good trend.

But now that e-readers are cheaper and more plentiful, they have gone mass market, reaching consumers across age and demographic groups, and enticing some members of the younger generation to pick them up for the first time.
“The kids have taken over the e-readers,” said Rita Threadgill of Harrison, N.Y., whose 11-year-old daughter requested a Kindle for Christmas.
In 2010 young-adult e-books made up about 6 percent of the total digital sales for titles published by St. Martin’s Press, but so far in 2011, the number is up to 20 percent, a spokeswoman for the publisher said. . . .
“Kids are drawn to the devices, and there’s a definite desire by parents to move books into this format,” Ms. Vila said. “Now you’re finding people who are saying: ‘Let’s use the platform. Let’s use it as a way for kids to learn.’ ”
Some teachers have been encouraging, too, telling their students that they are allowed to bring e-readers to school for leisure reading during homeroom and English class, for example. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/books/05ebooks.html?_r=1&hp