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Re: NY Times article: In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:08:11 GMT

by OnlineLassiterSysAdmin.

"...not be long" indeed!! See:

Textbooks That Professors Can Rewrite Digitally

<snip>

"In a kind of Wikipedia of textbooks, Macmillan, one of the five largest publishers of trade books and textbooks, is introducing software called DynamicBooks, which will allow college instructors to edit digital editions of textbooks and customize them for their individual classes."

</snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/business/media/22textbook.html?scp=3&sq=Macmillan&st=cse

Scholar’s School Reform U-Turn Shakes Up Debate

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:04:04 GMT

by OnlineLassiterSysAdmin.

“Standards, in many places, have proven nebulous and low,” he writes in a coming essay. “ ‘Accountability’ has turned to test-cramming and bean-counting, often limited to basic reading and math skills.”

Chester E. Finn Jr., a former assistant secretary of education, who worked at two conservative research groups, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Koret Task Force at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

The quote above seemed...timely.

The focus of the article from which it was taken was really:

"Diane Ravitch, the education historian who built her intellectual reputation battling progressive educators and served in the first Bush administration’s Education Department, is in the final stages of an astonishing, slow-motion about-face on almost every stand she once took on American schooling. "

Pretty interesting to see how a long-time educational thought leader's perceptions have changed as theory met reality and spawned experience.

Full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/education/03ravitch.html

Are teachers the key?

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:52:09 GMT

by OnlineLassiterSysAdmin.

A recent NY Times editorial talked about a woman who has established a couple of middle schools and a high school where previously under performing students have excelled. They quote the lady, Deborah Kenny:

“I became obsessed with how to develop great teachers,” she said.

The first step in that complex, difficult process is to create a school environment that has standards high enough and challenging enough to appeal to very good people. “You put all of your focus on finding great people,” said Ms. Kenny, “and you establish a culture that helps them constantly learn and grow and become better at what they do. You have to provide a community in the school that supports and respects teachers. And you have to give them the kind of freedom that allows their passion for teaching to flourish.

“We’ve created a culture that brings out the passion of the teachers and they bring out the passion of the kids.”

The full editorial is attached in .pdf or you can find the original at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/opinion/23herbert.html.