Right now the challenge is ensuring that everyone’s edublog account is set up properly.  I think with another session in the lab this will be feasible.

Thanks to those at edublogs who work to make this possible.  I’m confident this can all come together.

At that point I abandoned edublogs and went to wikispaces (http://newsthatmatters.wikispaces.com/) for students to post current event articles.  This was better in that everyone posted in the same space.  It was worse in that it did not facilitate the more informal and conversational writing that is encouraged by blogs.

How any one of us uses the available technology is increasingly a reflection of how we as individuals work and think.  Assigning blogs or wikis or aggregators or other online tools is often self-defeating in the classroom because while the teacher may think in the way he or she chooses to structure the online environment, only a portion of his or her students will also think that way.  Certainly it will be a minority; it may well be none of them.  And yet, as teachers we need some sort of relatively uniform system that enables us to assess and respond to the work of our students in a way that is meaningful and also realistic to accomplish in the limited hours we have to dedicate to students.

Is there an online tool that will capture students’ intrinsic interests while also producing something that can be manageably read and assessed by the teacher?  Should teachers allow students to use a variety of online tools?  Could the work online be primarily unregulated in the formal sense of “assessment?”

These are questions I will try to answer in the next few days as I embark on a new Civics course with renewed hope for classroom and online interaction between my students.

By the time students reach high school they have maintained the same “career” for longer than most adults ever will.  Students graduate high school with thirteen or more years of analyzing and critiquing teachers and their practices.  So why do we teachers (and I fault myself, too) rarely ask the experts what they think about schools?  Fortunately, when my students were asked to write about what they felt were important domestic issues in America today a few of them wrote about education.

Andrew examined the logic behind Connecticut’s standardized test that is one part of the national No Child Left Behind program.  He writes:

Everyone today has their opinions, yet most agree there are inherent problems with both public and private education in America today. When “No child left behind” was passed many were outraged. Basically the problem in No child left behind is that when each school district is required to issue CAPT tests, the schools with good scores recieve more funding, while the worse scoring schools recieve less funding. This whole system is completely STUPID, it takes funding away from where it is really needed and distributes it unevenly where it will not be used as well.  New ideas to reform the education system include completely revamping the way we teach, and redistributing funding to states rather than local district funding. (Andrew’s Blog, 12/15/2006)

Andrew’s summary of NCLB is brief, but cuts to the core of one of the main criticisms of the act in that it does not properly or accurately redistribute funds for education.  Education reform is typically conservative and ill directed.  Rarely does real reform occur.  Andrew states that “New ideas to reform the education system include completely revamping the way we teach.”  This couldn’t be more true, and especially in a time when there are so many technological tools at our disposal to truly revolutionize education.  It’s time for significant change, not politically correct change.

Another student of mine, Jesse, took a more reflective look at what education does versus what it should do:

Education is still an issue - uneducated poor, uneducated you, uneducated youth. This is my stance: most of us are not educated enough. Those who want to learn have to teach themselves. Most are caught in a life they didn’t create, told what to want, where to go, why they shouldn’t stray.

I want to learn how to love, how to live, how to be a man, how to dance, how to play music and make art - I want to learn things that change how I look at the world, things that give me power over myself, knowlege of myself, acceptance of myself. It seems like i’m taught to not accept my life, but to always be looking for something more - money so that one day i’ll have a safe and soft place to be. But i’m not taught to be, i’m taught to become. 

The world today does not know enough about what matters. We don’t know how to live without watse. We don’t know that we don’t rule the world. Mankind was not meant to be king, we put that on ourselves. And that has brought us problems. We live like the earth is ours to use, like the earth was made for us to live on it, like we know now how to live, as if we know what is best for us. “There is no higher power than man” we say, and so we guide ourselves, as if we know the way to go.

We don’t, but we can learn. (a big log, 1/21/2006)

These responses may not be loaded with evidence, but they contain a raw honesty that adults by and large have difficulty tapping into.  Students are professional learners with a keen awareness for good teaching practices and are individuals with nothing to lose by speaking the truth.  They do indeed have something to offer that we cannot.  Listening to that source and incorporating it into the larger discussion about education reform will be invaluable to the future of America’s schools.

Traditional teaching practices such as lecturing, when done well, are proven methods for delivering quality content in an efficient and engaging way.  They also model good communicative practices.  Group activities, when properly planned and structured, are engaging and encourage students to learn from one another.  Up until recently, however, it has been virtually impossible for students to construct something that has value outside of the immediate classroom.  Great lessons and projects usually end with a grade; rarely do they progress beyond the school setting.  For this reason, one of the single biggest complaints that students have about school is its lack of relevance to their own lives or the world outside the school house gates.  Online communication has the potential to change that.

Using blogs this semester was not a bad start.  I liked that blogs gave students the opportunity to write for a broader audience than just me.  Blogs allowed students to read and interact with one another far more than a typical homework or writing assignment that is passed from student to teacher to student to recycle bin.  On the blog, students wrote with more sincerity because it was published.  At the very least, a few of their friends would read their blog.  At most, who knows?  Additionally, because of the blogs inherently informal feel, a lot of the student writing contained a genuine voice that is typically not present in essays.

For me, the next step is to go beyond blogs.  While studying the Civil War I should prepare and present quality lectures to convey the “big picture” and model good communicative practices.  Many teachers are masters of their craft and have engaged students for years.  But let’s not stop there.  Provide students the access to a web space, a wiki space, and/or a blog that allows them to construct something of value for the larger community of historians.  Teachers are also coaches.  Help students establish an attainable objective such as to create an online space of primary source materials on abolition before the Civil War.  Guide students as they construct their website of materials.  Ensure that the project is focused enough so that a quality result can be achieved in the amount of time available.  Most importantly, ensure that the final product is accessible to the larger world of historians, or artists, or whoever the audience may be.

This example illustrates my goals as a history teacher, but the concept can be applied to any discipline.  Teach quality content, model good communication, and guide students as they create their own valuable addition to the discipline at hand.  In this way education may become a place where students are a part of the real world, rather than waiting to enter it.  As educators, we need to recognize this opportunity and use it to change the face of education.  The classroom up until now has been a hypothetical space – let’s make it real.

One of the phrases that struck me was the following:

Now the Pentagon and the Baker commission are deciding whether to send an extra 20,000 or 30,000 US troops to Iraq, and, in particular, to Baghdad, in a last-ditch effort to get a grip on the violence. (Cornwell)

I don’t believe an American news source has ever characterized the debated option of a US troop increase as a “last-ditch effort.”  Such phrasing adds a sense of desperation that is not articulated in the American media.

 Of course, many of these papers will be biased in their own way, but if we can examine other versions of the same story, then perhaps we can determine a more global truth of each event.  Only then will we as members of the global community be able to come to some consensus on how to proceed during these times of difficult international tensions.

The question of whether we need a universal military draft will be important as long as this country is placing thousands of young men and women in harm’s way in Iraq. As long as Americans are being shipped off to war, then everyone should be vulnerable, not just those who, because of economic circumstances, are attracted by lucrative enlistment bonuses and educational incentives.  (Daily News)

Rangel continues by explaining that he has always been against going to war, and believes that if Congress had a personal stake in the fight in Iraq, then perhaps Congress would have been more vigilant in its examination of whether or not America should enter Iraq in the first place.  As of now, over 2,800 Americans have been killed in action, and over 21,000 have been wounded. (Daily News)

 In the name of equality, do you think a draft should be reinstated so that everyone must take their turn in serving their country in a time of war?