tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post6032432948778638210..comments2023-10-23T09:23:22.051-04:00Comments on Your Schools: More CMS schools to get BYOTUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-50052787908264856792013-01-09T21:03:57.120-05:002013-01-09T21:03:57.120-05:00seriously, what is the upside to this decision? I...seriously, what is the upside to this decision? I can't come up with anything solid from a parent's point of view. I can see why CMS likes it, as previous people have noted here, it must save them a lot of money.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-38593292043839069822013-01-09T09:44:11.733-05:002013-01-09T09:44:11.733-05:00In the eyes of CMS they can now increase class siz...In the eyes of CMS they can now increase class sizes and layoff more teachers if they increase technology use. Seems like a good deal for more money to be poured into downtown offices.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-24930492919756154212013-01-08T21:52:03.503-05:002013-01-08T21:52:03.503-05:00Wonderful. Little to no available technology in th...Wonderful. Little to no available technology in the classroom now. Grants for i-pads were bogus and every student has better equipment than the employees. Sounds like a reasonable plan to me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-11941575527846673172013-01-08T16:26:52.980-05:002013-01-08T16:26:52.980-05:003:36 You are 100% correct. I have seen that exact...3:36 You are 100% correct. I have seen that exact phenomenon in the classes already with BYOT. And, now parents are calling, texting and emailing their little darlings throughout the day.Texas girlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-15080854962684276232013-01-08T15:36:31.633-05:002013-01-08T15:36:31.633-05:00The problem with "technology" in the cla...The problem with "technology" in the classroom is that it will only rarely be used in a constructive manner; especially with elementary students. More often, the "technology" will be used as a babysitter and time filler. Since these students LOVE their iphones and such, they will fall back on those pieces of entertainment for all free time. The teacher will struggle to continue quiet small-group instruction while other students play with their videos, cameras, games, etc. Students will be rewarded for finishing work quickly by getting more time to play. Teachers will struggle to keep students on task. Technology in the classroom, in the hands of the students, will make teaching more difficult. How many parents find it easy to get and maintain their child's attention while they are playing a video game? The same will go for a teacher and her/his students.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-41582796161240939982013-01-08T09:16:31.878-05:002013-01-08T09:16:31.878-05:00Texas girl,
I also wonder about this.
I have a...Texas girl,<br /><br />I also wonder about this. <br /><br />I have already put some parental control software on my son's Kindle Fire called Freetime.<br /><br />The device powers up using that device which restricts the content (video, books, apps) and the time which may be spent on each category each day (unlimited books, 30 minutes video, 30 minutes apps) all at MY choice.<br /><br />Now, if he takes his device to school, someone has to disable those rules or broaden them to make the rules worthless.<br /><br />Or else teachers have to learn how to manage each type of parental control software for each type of device and have the access codes to do so.<br /><br />Or they should develop a STANDARD control process for everyone.<br /><br />I don't think they are capable of doing and enforcing either option.<br /><br />So, the end result is unrestricted access to whatever the kids can find.<br /><br />I just wish they had let me listen to a portable radio when I was in school.<br /><br />I must have missed hours of cool "underground" radio broadcasts while in class...Shamashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06886687970259841873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-59721468192844009652013-01-08T09:13:51.677-05:002013-01-08T09:13:51.677-05:00Shamash,
Granted it's only a quarter after 9,...Shamash,<br /><br />Granted it's only a quarter after 9, but your comment there is the best thing I've read all day.Jeff Wisenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-10301012710899489142013-01-08T09:06:15.126-05:002013-01-08T09:06:15.126-05:00Jeff,
On the tech-nostalgia angle, I actually pro...Jeff,<br /><br />On the tech-nostalgia angle, I actually programmed a PDP-8 as an undergrad in BINARY machine language.<br /><br />I'm not kidding. Pure zeros and one's toggled into memory using toggle switches indicating either 1(up) or zero(down) <br /><br />Bit by bit.<br /><br />The goal was to search a list of numbers stored in a particular range of memory and return the largest number.<br /><br />I think it took something like 60 lines of code to do this as I recall.<br /><br />Talk about some "skills"...<br /><br />But think about this.<br /><br /> Such "skills" were probably very similar to those used by computer programmers who were responsible for putting a man on the moon in the 1960's.<br /><br />The technology was crude in comparison to what we have today, but they made very good use of what they had.<br /><br /><br /><br />Shamashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06886687970259841873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-88550479766606450802013-01-08T07:57:04.051-05:002013-01-08T07:57:04.051-05:00After reading many of these posts yesterday, I ask...After reading many of these posts yesterday, I asked my 4th grade daughter who is in a BYOT classroom about it. She said "Mom, I know why they want us to do it, so we will can play and have fun all day." Out of the mouths of babe.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-75043906699010944422013-01-08T01:10:37.180-05:002013-01-08T01:10:37.180-05:007:37
George W. Bush enacted the No Child Left Behi...<b>7:37<br />George W. Bush enacted the No Child Left Behind Act.<br /><br />Alicia</b><br /><br />NCLB was a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which was supposed to expire in 1970.<br /><br />It was reauthorized every 5 years since then, with Bush renaming it NCLB with the changes he made to the act.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-82716937723780798462013-01-08T01:03:32.431-05:002013-01-08T01:03:32.431-05:00Now a HR employee causes the Transportation Dept. ...Now a HR employee causes the Transportation Dept. to have to worry about the loss of their identity. Their solution was for them to contact the FTC?<br /><br />Please say it isnt so!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-65369507224933002242013-01-07T23:13:39.986-05:002013-01-07T23:13:39.986-05:00Alicia,
To your points on my points. The idea of ...Alicia,<br /><br />To your points on my points. The idea of video games enhancing dexterity isn't something for toddlers, but more in line with teenagers.<br /><br />Our 5-year-old enjoys using our iPad, but spends more time doing creative stuff with non-tech objects.<br /><br />To that end, if an engaged parent wants to push their child to be a brain surgeon fro age 3 and use video games, that's their choice. <br /><br />The people behind the Welcome To Your Child's Brain book talk a lot about the optimal ages for various developmental milestones. Their blog is good too. Paul Tough's books address this to a degree too. It's a fascinating area of study and highlights the wonders of human development.<br />Jeff Wisenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-87807352820938586552013-01-07T23:06:03.531-05:002013-01-07T23:06:03.531-05:00Missouri,
I'm not going to debate partisan po...Missouri,<br /><br />I'm not going to debate partisan politics. It's clear both parties are on the wrong path with their current education agenda. If you don't see that, that's fine.<br /><br />Both parties want high stakes testing. Both parties want testing to be tied to teacher pay. Both parties completely misunderstand the flaws in testing and how useless it is to measure student growth. And on and on it goes.<br /><br />I believe education to be a non-partisan issue, I'm a registered independent and I ran for school board 2 years ago as an independent. I've done plenty of reading on these issues, trust me.<br /><br />Please then, don't pawn off some song and dance about how one party is to blame while the other party only wants rainbows and unicorns - that's garbage. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Jeff Wisenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-22887580323141777372013-01-07T22:24:07.958-05:002013-01-07T22:24:07.958-05:00Missouri and Jeff,
1. On the topic of being in t...Missouri and Jeff,<br /><br />1. On the topic of being in the zone...<br /><br />In terms of critical brain development periods which, BTW, the Educational establishment prefers to call ZPD - Zone of Proximal Development. <br /><br />Is it more important to allow a child to freely draw with crayons, or, is it better to have children learn how to master video games using two opposable thumbs? <br /><br />2. Which takes us onto the subject of "Differentiation"...<br /><br />Perhaps 2-year-olds who want to become surgeons should focus their thumbs on video games while 3-year-olds who want to become journalists focus all ten fingers on coloring? <br /><br />* Did you know teachers are no longer allowed to give children old-fashioned coloring book pictures? Doing so prevents children from being "creative" which, apparently, is critical to making sure they can neatly draw within the bubble on a high-stakes standardized test using a #2 pencil.<br /><br />Angry birds? More like mad cows to me.<br /><br />AliciaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-22056030996135857672013-01-07T21:56:40.441-05:002013-01-07T21:56:40.441-05:00Alicia, actually the worse feature of NCLB was fro...Alicia, actually the worse feature of NCLB was from the insistance of Ted Kennedy, the portion about the school being labeled "failed" if any subgroup failed. Don't forget Bush tried to work along with the Demo's and all they did was stab him in the back and put idiots like Michael Moore in front of cameras with taxpayers' money. Missourinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-10165737192360481692013-01-07T21:41:19.350-05:002013-01-07T21:41:19.350-05:007:37
George W. Bush enacted the No Child Left Behi...7:37<br />George W. Bush enacted the No Child Left Behind Act.<br /><br />Alicia<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-61141093367967547872013-01-07T20:26:20.387-05:002013-01-07T20:26:20.387-05:00Jeff, interesting you think Republians have anythi...Jeff, interesting you think Republians have anything to do with testing. If you want to discuss NCLB, there was no NEW testing criteria in it. It only referenced states using their existing testing criteria. The Obama administration has been offering money like a "john" to the states to get on board with even more extensive testing as in the "mis" use to evaluate teachers via their students' scores. A serious mis-step if you have never proctored tests in middle school and high school as I have done. All NCLB was after was stopping illiterate students from getting a diploma and yet our democrat controlled state passed law after law preventing the test from being used to stop the promotion of illiterate students.<br /><br />The democrats abused this strategy by allowing this inner circle of consultants/past superintendents to scrape off valuable education budget dollars for these tests/reports/etc. Additionally, they were more than glad to prostitute themselves for money from any foundation they could and generally with no useful results after multi-years of experimental school reform.<br /><br />So don't try to pawn much of this off on Republicans. They and their business buddies were tired of graduates that could not fill out a job application, could not conduct themsleves in a job interview and could not interact with a customer. <br /><br />But in any case, public education, like medical costs, college costs, etc. has been ruined by the intrusion of the federal government.Missourinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-59027788771644312352013-01-07T20:13:18.636-05:002013-01-07T20:13:18.636-05:00Teachers can pinpoint the release date of the late...Teachers can pinpoint the release date of the latest and most graphically violent first-person-shooter video game by the corresponding uptick in behavior problems the following week.<br /><br />Kids, (yes, even in the suburbs), routinely come to school irritable, exhausted, and bleary-eyed from far too much screen time and far too little sleep. <br /><br />Parents can barely be bothered to turn off their cell phones long enough to acknowledge their child's presence when picking them up from school, so I suppose you could say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. We need to set the boundaries for the appropriate use of technology at home (and practice what we preach) before we can expect teachers with 25+ kids in a classroom to do so.<br /><br />The commentators who referred to the BYOT initiative as "a pacifier" and "a joke" are right on the money. It's just another CMS feel-good time-waster and taxpayer fleecing which will primarily serve to create more jobs for an already overflowing pool of unnecessary and ineffective CMS administrators.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-23840487943232238692013-01-07T19:44:22.098-05:002013-01-07T19:44:22.098-05:00Missouri,
I don't think you can just point a ...Missouri,<br /><br />I don't think you can just point a finger at Democrats on bad school reform. Republicans are essentially the same. Both parties are heavy on favoring high stakes testing and using bad data to try and measure teacher effectiveness.<br /><br />The current wave of school reform knows not partisan politics. <br /><br /><br /><br />Jeff Wisenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-71318488691210097812013-01-07T19:38:05.647-05:002013-01-07T19:38:05.647-05:00You have to understand the agenda this organizatio...You have to understand the agenda this organization has. As you see as you read the details, many states have these same issues. Such is the state of public education driven by the democrats and their either coddling of the unions or circling the wagons to prevent any changes to this domain. <br /><br />Clearly you see how educrats and democrats cherish the role of "saving the black people" yet still refuse to use hard fact and data to understand how to effectively educate them because they do not want to. They rely on the race card politics and character assassination by the local mass media to keep taxpayers at bay.Missourinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-38856674416698237162013-01-07T17:40:06.609-05:002013-01-07T17:40:06.609-05:00In other news, North Carolina just got a D grade i...In other news, North Carolina just got a D grade in its school reform efforts:<br /><br />http://reportcard.studentsfirst.org/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-46827917042128636912013-01-07T17:30:51.056-05:002013-01-07T17:30:51.056-05:002;07 asks a good question, what about all the game...2;07 asks a good question, what about all the games, etc.. that are loaded on personal devices? how is a teacher supposed to control, manage and supervise that? Would love to hear from some CMS teachers on this topic. Where are they?Texas girlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-73078567608525718232013-01-07T17:23:24.467-05:002013-01-07T17:23:24.467-05:00it's becoming harder and harder to be a parent...it's becoming harder and harder to be a parent trying to do the right thing and make the right decisions for your kids, especially when you have your school district working against you. Texas Girlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-43942312500313822882013-01-07T16:41:22.868-05:002013-01-07T16:41:22.868-05:00A couple of points.
I'm definitely a tech fan...A couple of points.<br /><br />I'm definitely a tech fan, but I agree with some others that it does not replace everything. Students are still to be taught how to write properly and how to add/subtract by hand - these concepts are important building blocks.<br /><br />Technology definitely does not solve everything, but it is a tool of great value.<br /><br />Regarding video games, there are studies showing that some games promote excellent hand-eye coordination, to the extent that some medical schools are experimenting with using video games to help aspiring doctors sharpen their surgical skills.<br /><br />Video games are what we make of them. I watched hours upon hours of Looney Tunes as a child and I harbor no desire to drop anvils on people, or shoot ducks during rabbit season. <br /><br />There was a tremendous series of posts by a 20-something man with a history of mental disease and he freely admitted that violent video games helped keep him from becoming a menace to society. Bottom line is we need to be careful about the generalizations of video games and the like.<br /><br />And lastly, for Shamash, as a wee lad I'd accompany my dad when he would rent time on a bigger mainframe for processing and he'd have me help load magnetic tapes and showed me whopping 10MB platters. Those were the days!<br /><br />Jeff Wisenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-39732583286014358072013-01-07T16:37:49.891-05:002013-01-07T16:37:49.891-05:00to 3:51 Yes, 3rd grade is part of the current,ini...to 3:51 Yes, 3rd grade is part of the current,initial roll out of the BYOT initiative. CMS hopes to include K-2 for the upcoming school year. Parents should be concerned and upset by this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com