200 question finalists for school chief

200 question finalists for school chief Hopefuls for Racine spot left previous similar jobsBy DANI MCCLAIN
dmcclain@journalsentinel.comPosted: April 14, 2008

Racine - Three people have made the final cut to lead Wisconsin's fourth largest district, and the candidates - all of whom most recently worked in Southern states, and none of whom currently holds a superintendent post - got the chance to defend their records and articulate their vision for the Racine Unified School District before an audience of about 200 people Monday.

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Emergence as alchemy

The Internet swamp is golden because it allows the emergence of what is known by humankind. In this report of an exchange at the Singularity Summit 2007, the functional principle of the alchemy of knowledge is touched upon. The future of learning will be undergirded by emergence (and not AGI, BTW):

Google Director of Research Peter Norvig opened the second day of the Singularity Summit 2007 with his take on the state artificial general intelligence (AGI).

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Darren is truly making “A Difference”

Recently I presented a workshop session on blogging at the GaETC conference. I had a Skype call with Darren Kuropatwa. I wanted him to share the positive aspects of blogging that he had experienced with his class. Some amazing things came out of that call. First, Darren shared how his students summarize what they are learning through the scribe posts on the class blog. He explains it so well on the podcast. He uses a paradigm he borrowed from med school - watch it, do it, teach it. His students are writng the textbook for the class. The examples he shared were fantastic. He shared how he uses the chat box so his students have homework help 24-7. The students use delicious to create a resource file to help each class member. Then the wiki solutions manual is the space where students solve, annotate, and correct each others’ work. Listen to the podcast to get his explanations. What is so impressive to me is that Darren has truly put this in the hands of his students. They have ownership of their learning. They work as a team. It is the best use of blogging that I’ve seen in a classroom.

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An 8th Grade Education

You have probably heard elderly family members or friends refer to having an 8th grade education. Going through grammar school, or 8th grade, without continuing on to high school was fairly common in the past. But what exactly was an 8th grade education? Genealogy blogger Randy Seaver posted an 1895 Salina, KS. 8th grade final exam. Here is an excerpt:

Grammar (Time, one hour)

Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.Define verse, stanza and paragraphWhat are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of “lie”, “play”, and “run.”Define case; illustrate each case.What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

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Still not convinced the world is flattening?

I did a quick Google search of the following search term linux +education just to see what it came up with. You see, this afternoon has been spent by me trying to determine just what resources are out there in the open source in education world. The conclusion is that there is not a whole lot, let alone much that has been recently updated. I was disappointed to say the least. Now I know of a number of Linux websites that are dedicated to different distros, but I wanted specifically a US-based open source for education site. Not many.

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Collaborative Writing Via Google Docs and Skype

Today we experienced the best collaborative writing experience I’ve ever been part of. Lisa Parisi and Christine Southard’s 5th grade class in New York is involved with my class and a group of other teachers around the country in a writing project using the book “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.” I blogged about it the other day. Lisa’s class and mine are paired up for this project and today we had our classes collaborating in two innovative ways.

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Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn

Teens in Boston have the opportunity to join Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn.

This program teaches teens (14-19) how to teach others in their community about technology. Run out of the South End Technology Center @ Tent City and started by Mel King, the program has a mission to enable people to become producers of knowledge and sharers of ideas and information. They provide free or low-cost access and training in most aspects of computer-related technology.

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