Friday, October 1, 2010

WAITING for SUPERMAN (STOP Waiting and START Creating!)

It's possible. Together we can fix education.

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Hello Superheroes,
Did you see Oprah last week? She dedicated two episodes to Waiting for "Superman." The movie has been getting incredible press, including coverage on NBC's Education Nation. The movie's director, Davis Guggenheim, has participated in many events, including a special town hall meeting on MSNBC. Even the President is talking about the movie.

Now it's your turn to start talking:
Contact your local campaign manager

It's simple. Go to the Get Local page and click on your city. Then contact your campaign manager to get involved. We can't solve this crisis in education nationally without acting locally.

Don't forget to tell everyone you know to see the film as it opens in nine more cities this weekend!

Sincerely,

The Waiting for "Superman" Team

PLEDGE NOW!
	Action for Education Only two days left to take the 'Action for Education' Pledge! If they receive 100,000 pledges by October 1, American Express will donate $1 million to DonorsChoose.org! Pledge on Facebook

OPENING THIS WEEKEND
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

EDUCATION NATION! (Tuesday)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

STILL NOT A "DIME" FROM RTTT

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A RECIPE for SUCCESS!

Practice: We’re in it together

Most of what we know, remember, and use, we didn’t learn by teachers and textbooks filling our empty heads, Marion Brady reminds us in an excellent recent blog post confronting current education “reforms.” Instead, we came to learning with our own ideas, opinions, explanations, beliefs and values. And then “we discovered real-world patterns and relationships — new knowledge that caused us to constantly rethink, reorganize, reconstruct, and replace earlier knowledge.”

That’s a very serious intellectual practice, worthy of 10,000 hours. (Translate: eight years of school!) And it takes a coach — someone to watch closely, suggesting just the next stretch a learner needs, at just the right moment. It’s a delicate business, not simple transfer of information– and it has everything to do with the learner’s motivation. As Brady puts it,

As is true of adults, kids’ ideas and beliefs become part of who they are, so attempts to change them may come across as attacks on their identity and be resisted.

That’s why teaching is such a complex, multi-step process, he says in this wonderful summary of what the good teacher practices every day. (Reminder: 10,000 hours is at least five or six years of teaching!)

The teacher has to (a) “get inside” that head to figure out what’s thought to be true, right, or important, (b) understand the kid’s value system well enough to offer ideas sufficiently appealing to warrant taking them seriously and paying attention, (c) choose language or tasks that question old ideas and clarify new ones, (d) get feedback as necessary to decide how to proceed, (e) load the whole process up with enough emotion to carry it past short-term memory, and (f) do this for a roomful of kids, no two of whom are identical.

The faces of students in our Practice Project lit up when they told me of the learning experiences that really stuck with them. Above all, it was hands-on projects, internships, and apprenticeships that led them to ask better questions, explore their subjects more deeply, and rise to the challenge of producing new knowledge.

Along the way, their level of engagement with adults also shifted in crucial ways. Learner and teacher were in it together. And it showed.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Movies and Education (RGB STUDIOS)

State’s film tax credit lifts small businesses, excites imaginations

When he sponsored the bill that would, when adopt ed in April 2008, make Michi gan the most generous state in the nation for movie pro ducers, Andy Meisner had three objectives: creating jobs as quickly as possible in the depths of our economic melt down; growing longer-term a new industry that could some day account for perhaps 5% of the state economy, and re taining creative, educated young people who were looking to pursue their fu tures outside Michigan.

And by those objectives, Meisner said, the movie tax credit is not only a success but a bigger one than most of the much less visible tax breaks and incentives the state provides for other busi nesses — about $36 billion worth last year, including the $37.5 million for the movie, TV and video industry.

A bipartisan idea

Meisner, now the elected Oakland County treasurer, was a Democratic state repre sentative in his final term when he worked with state Sen. Jason Allen, a Republican from Petoskey, to as semble the movie tax pack age, which passed the Legisla ture with only one vote against, from Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi.

“We have literally billions of dollars in various tax ex penditures, exemptions and credits that have been grant ed, many of which do not deliver the desired outcome,” Meisner said. “While the state coffers may never be fully replenished from the film tax credits, this was never about making money for the state.”

But with the next governor facing a $1.6-billion budget hole and unemployment ex pected to remain well into double digits, can Michigan really afford to give away money to have movies shot here?

Cassis’ continuing skepti cism was fueled by last week’s report from the state Senate Fiscal Agency. The report asserted that the expenditure of $100 million through movie tax credits has generated less than $60 million in economic activity. But the term-limited Cassis is doubtful a lame-duck Legislature will do anything about the credits in the bal ance of this year. To next year’s incoming crowd, how ever, they may look like low hanging fruit to throw at that budget deficit.

I hope not. I prefer to see them as seeds that sprouted quickly but will never grow into sturdy timbers of the state economy without time and tending. Given the flighty nature of the movie business, just the chatter about chang ing the rules might spur pro ducers to seek a better deal elsewhere.

Infrastructure for films

Developers are working to build a foundation for the industry here, including the construction of studios and postproduction facilities.
Schools are getting up to speed on the education need ed for jobs in film, video and video game production. And movie makers are slowly get ting more comfortable using local talent. They are, by all accounts, enormously pleased with the locations and the work ethic here and, of course, the tax break.

There are countless stories of businesses that got a quick shot in the arm from having a movie company around — a coffee shop that was repaired and repainted for a scene, a secondhand store that had its best sales day ever when the wardrobe people came in to shop, a local bistro that got a boost from a movie star on karaoke night.

And there are the intangi bles — the movies have given our collective psyche a boost amid our economic woes, something to talk about, even participate in. They greatly expanded Michigan’s pres ence on the national and glob al stage, too. Nothing calls attention to your world-class airport quite the way George Clooney can.

Movies are never going to replace the auto industry as Michigan’s economic main stay. But if we stick with what we’ve started and allow it to grow, they can — along with batteries, solar shingles, wind turbines and biomedical breakthroughs — be a solid and exciting part of Michi gan’s future. We’ve spent a lot more to get back a lot less.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

THEY'RE READY!

Partnership for 21st Century Skills (Video Contest 2010 Winners)
https://thepartnershipfor21stcenturyskills238.eduvision.tv/Default.aspx?q=trkxL8LvXknf8kDDdmJdOg%253d%253d

Monday, September 13, 2010

FILM: Waiting for Superman

Waiting for Superman
http://film.waitingforsuperman.com/

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Robert Bobb on 21st Century Digital Learning Environments

Saturday, August 28, 2010

RTTT (Who, WHAT, WHY, When, Where)

State of Michigan (Phase 2 Application)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/michigan.pdf

RTTT State of Michigan (Scorecard)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/score-sheets/michigan.pdf

RTTT State of Michigan (Technical Review / Comments)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/comments/michigan.pdf

RTTT State of Michigan (Appendix / Reimagine Elements / Letters of Support)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/appendixes/michigan.pdf

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

State of Michigan Drop-Out Challenge

mde welcome from Lansing iT on Vimeo.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

TECHONOMY!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

SIFTING and WINNOWING through the NOISE in search of the DESIGN NUGGETS!

ISTE Conference 2010 (Technology & Learning)

http://www.techlearning.com/Video.aspx?bctid=46069721001

PARTNERSHIP for 21st CENTURY SKILLS

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Alas, A REAL-WORLD 21st Century Challenge!

Teachers' Challenges for 21st Century Learning
by Leslie Wilson

I’m frequently asked if virtual learning and technologies will eliminate the need for teachers. Quite the contrary, I say. We need teachers! We need teachers who can successfully navigate from the traditional to a transformed venue. We need teachers who can rigorously set the stage for students’ self-directed, personalized learning - exploiting the power of technology.

Technologies, virtual and online learning, etc., are marvelous 21^st century tools for engaged learning. BUT the wisdom, guidance, resource structures and personalization can come only from a human being.

Any technology tool I use is fundamental. Without strategizing and energizing with the device – it is simply ‘stuff’ in a room. Yes – technology can be not only boring but a waste of time in a classroom without being meaningfully integrated with relevant curriculum and experiences. The teacher is needed to make this happen.

I’ve witnessed many one to one environments where the portable, personal devices are used to replace binders, papers and pencils – in still teacher-centric settings. Technology tools need to harness the inherent power and opportunities for learning with a focus on the student. The teacher is essential to bring to life the myriad of elements that make up the enhanced classroom.

But – the teacher practice is different from the traditional model. Recreating and retooling the teaching practice is a must to well serve students in today’s 21^stcentury learning ecosystem. The real question isn’t ‘will we need teachers’, but ‘what will teachers need to be able to do’ in the new environment.

Teachers’ retooling is not the only necessity. Today’s students need to adjust to a learning setting for which they are responsible. Many have complacently accepted the traditional venue where the teacher does all the work and the student ‘sits and gits’.

The teachers’ challenge is threefold. One – to change his/her own foundational beliefs and practices; two – to coach students to become self-directed learners where they do two thirds of the heavy learning lifting toward achievement; three – integrate technologies in meaningful, relevant ways. Each of these is a challenge that requires high quality employee-directed and employer-directed professional development.

I am a proponent of job-embedded professional growth experiences for employees (employer-directed). I also believe that professionals (teachers) have a responsibility to grow, know research and best practice and apply these to their work in addition to what can be provided on the job (employee-directed). Teachers who pursue both venues will more quickly acclimate and deliver for this century’s youth. These are the teachers who will thrive in an education technology enhanced education system. Others may become extinct.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Monday, September 13, 2010

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Teachers' Challenges for 21st Century Learning by Leslie Wilson

Teachers' Challenges for 21st Century Learning
by Leslie Wilson