Blurts

I have always been a public institutions advocate. I share the concern of so many with the nomination of billionaire Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. I would prefer that this position be filled by someone with direct experiences in the processes of education and not an advocate for a narrow educational issue (private schools). Still, I believe the public institutions should accept some responsibility for questioning the productivity and vision of public sch0ols.

Public education and probably all main stream institutions tend to hang on to how things have always been done. Such institutions attract those comfortable with existing practices and find ways to justify existing ways of doing things. I believe that things do change and new ideas worthy of exploration come into prominence. I think the advance of technology represents an example enabling well-researched classroom tactics that have previously been impractical. I think we are at a point in time in which the individual learner needs to receive more individual opportunities and technology can provide one way to provide such experiences.

The effectiveness of many important ideas need to be evaluated in practice. I fault public education for not providing the natural laboratory necessary to evaluate potentially productive practices. Whatever the motives behind the promotion of charter school options (I recognize that charter school can mean many different things), the lack of exploration that exists in public school settings has created this opening.

I have been a Tom Friedman fan for many years. I like his take on so many things and his capacity to blend ideas together in ways that make sense to me.

Friedman presented in Minneapolis this morning and I was able to attend. I am not certain if the presentation was part of a book tour or not, but the focus was on his most recent offering – Thank you for being late. I had read about half of the book so I pretty knew what was coming. He speaks as well as he writes.

Minnesota Public Radio recorded the session so the audio is available.

Grandma and Porter exploring iteration at the Apple genius bar.

We are in the midst of the “Hour of Code”. Schools have made this a popular annual event pointing to the vocational opportunities for programmers and to the potential benefits of “computational thinking”. Both outcomes have potential benefits to learners.

Here is the issue. All of the attention and energy associated with the “Hour of Code” seems to dissipate quickly without much actually having been accomplished. Those adults who find this cause justified need to look beyond “the hour” to invest time and resources into real change. My concern is that ed tech folks find satisfaction at this level and do little to move this cause forward. There is too much focus on elementary school experiences and not enough on resource commitments in the upper grades.

A plan for real change