tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post5612612813934580191..comments2023-10-26T04:38:06.297-04:00Comments on TeachPaperless: What would you do with $40 million?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14091328599818819777noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-46216247641244275102009-11-03T12:35:24.192-05:002009-11-03T12:35:24.192-05:00Time for the phrase "Robber Barons" to m...Time for the phrase "Robber Barons" to make a comeback.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-77007184589927863952009-11-02T14:22:44.823-05:002009-11-02T14:22:44.823-05:00Looks like they're not so hot on this deal in ...Looks like they're not so hot on this deal in Detroit, either:<br /><br />http://www.detnews.com/article/20091030/SCHOOLS/910300455/1409/METRO/Questions-arise-over-DPS--$40M-digital-products-contractN, Tardiffhttp://twitter.com/ntardiffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-56040807049577211552009-11-02T09:14:34.969-05:002009-11-02T09:14:34.969-05:00With all due respect to Dr. Tom, textbooks don'...With all due respect to Dr. Tom, textbooks don't keep kids on the same page any more than standards do. If a kid can't read or doesn't want to read, then the kid won't. With the incredible variance between kids' levels of performance and passions, it takes teachers to innovate new solutions that meet students where they are, engage them with meaningful work, and move them forward toward living a fulfilled life. We don't need a better mousetrap. We need no mousetrap. We need to completely eschew pejorative metaphors for school and make a new way, classroom by classroom, until the textbook and testing vendors are innovating for us instead of replicating against us. And by us, I mean students, teachers, and America. There are no new ideas in textbooks. The road to reforming education, lowering HS drop-out rates, and fostering the creativity and problem-solving talents of our kids should be paved with disused textbooks.Chad@classroots.orghttp://classroots.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-90062078737735622132009-11-01T10:42:13.851-05:002009-11-01T10:42:13.851-05:00I wouldn't blame a thief if I left my money ou...I wouldn't blame a thief if I left my money out on the doorstep. <br /><br />Schools are still designed for textbooks and their add-ons. You have to keep 30+ kids of the same age, but with vastly differing ability levels all in the same place. When it comes to the textbook, nobody has invented a better mousetrap.<br /><br />Blame the school leaders who advise the Board for not coming up with better ways to deliver a better education for more learners.Tom Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11413782544100898767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-59497679424557959282009-10-31T12:32:01.737-04:002009-10-31T12:32:01.737-04:00Excellent article and very good thinking. Google A...Excellent article and very good thinking. Google Apps for education and the private sector is smart business. It's the web model and distributed data, kept safe along with tools that foster collaboration and at a great price.Don Watkinshttp://www.donwatkins.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-7636885850196148332009-10-30T22:22:10.116-04:002009-10-30T22:22:10.116-04:00This shows an unbelievable lack of vision by the l...This shows an unbelievable lack of vision by the leaders of the Detroit Public Schools. We have one question we ask of ourselves when making decisions in our small little hamlet: can we do it without asking anyone for help? That question includes asking taxpayers for unnecessary contributions.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08156784418545421424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-63282309269817051432009-10-30T22:08:46.060-04:002009-10-30T22:08:46.060-04:00How can a school board make decisions about what i...How can a school board make decisions about what is good for a classroom? Most of the school board members in my district aren't teachers. They don't know what is good in a classroom.<br /><br />Also, any major metropolitan district has thousands of teachers. Why not present all kinds of options to classroom teachers and let them run with it. For instance, I love Edmodo. Another teacher in my building swears by Moodle. Another teacher friend is content with Ning. Different strokes for different folks. <br /><br />I understand having something created for specifice needs. However, this situation reeks of a publisher not wanting to lose out on mega bucks when the option to go online with free resources is a reality.BKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12880121067443145641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-78580517759290814842009-10-30T17:35:17.531-04:002009-10-30T17:35:17.531-04:00On the other hand, in addition to working as a cla...On the other hand, in addition to working as a classroom teacher, I've been a professional programmer who has developed personalized apps for small businesses. I always recommend that my clients look for free or even general purpose software that they can adapt for their needs. Nobody ever does that because they want the software fitted to their businesses; they do not want to be forced to retrain their employees and redo their procedures to adapt to software that may or may not turn out to help them run their businesses when finished. In the end, they get what they want, a product that functions precisely as they want, and their business goes on uninterrupted. I should also say that most of these people have tried the open source, and even general purpose software route, usually with disastrous and expensive consequences.<br /><br />Given my experience, I can see what the Detroit school district has made the choice it has.Bill Chapmanhttp://www.classroomtools.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-79448407334449073112009-10-30T14:28:39.683-04:002009-10-30T14:28:39.683-04:00Ms. Byrd-Bennet needs to a bit of research or take...Ms. Byrd-Bennet needs to a bit of research or take one of the many tech. ed. classes that I read about on Twitter.<br /><br />For anything that she wants to do online, I'll give her at least 1, and usually 3 or 4 free options. Hell, if she wants, I'll take $1 million, do the research, put into a fancy Google Doc and share it with her...wait, those already exist. Still, I'll take the million.<br /><br />It's scary that this type of thing is happening in the higher ups. Dang.BKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12880121067443145641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-67696500959913540452009-10-30T14:12:48.885-04:002009-10-30T14:12:48.885-04:00It's worse than just business-as-usual. It...It's worse than just business-as-usual. It's circling the wagons in the face of the enemy — teachers like you and me who have resolved to give up textbooks.<br /><br />My school has an operating budget of something like $7 million; and that's for a school with a boarding program. We don't pay for textbooks, exactly; we order them and sell them to our students, sort of. So figure that half of the costs of our program are associated with having to provide housing and daily meals... So let's guess you can run a day school for maybe $3.5 million a year.<br /><br />By that logic, the Detroit School System has just given away the money necessary to run eleven schools for a year, and pay all the support staff and infrastructure costs associated with their administrative district staff. <br /><br />Once again, the public treasury is robbed for the sake of private profit. Truly we live in the greatest epoch for privatization since the invention of medieval feudalism.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com