By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come
across a gem, email it to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.
This week’s
homework!
Neil Gaiman: Why
our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming
Not purely educational
but of great value all the same.
‘I'm going to tell you that libraries are important. I'm
going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the
most important things one can do. I'm going to make an impassioned plea for
people to understand what libraries and librarians are, and to preserve both of
these things.’
And:
‘The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate
children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a
pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they
enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them.’
The Not-So-Hidden Cause Behind the
A.D.H.D. Epidemic
Fallout from GERM? Not purely educational but of great value all the same.
‘When
Hinshaw compared the rollout of these school policies with incidences of
A.D.H.D., he found that when a state passed laws punishing or rewarding schools
for their standardized-test scores, A.D.H.D. diagnoses in that state would
increase not long afterward. Nationwide, the rates of A.D.H.D. diagnosis
increased by 22 percent in the first four years after No Child Left Behind was
implemented.’
Following on…..
we really are living in a very sad world.
Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help
in School
“We’ve decided as a
society that it’s
too expensive to modify the kid’s
environment. So we have to modify the kid.”
Will NewsCorp Soon Own Your Child's
Student Data? Education Technology and the Murdoch-Klein Connection (via Mary
Mackay, Amsterdam)
A nearly inevitable end point for the
collection of data on children, not just in the USA. Big data is turning into a
21st century nightmare.
‘...the ability to store large amounts of
student information and provide tools for analyzing the data–information that will be available not only
to educators, but also to education-technology developers who can tailor
products to student and school needs. The article also explores the privacy
concerns raised by the easy access that large numbers of companies will have to
a vast array of information, ranging from academic achievement to disciplinary
problems, for potentially tens of millions of students.’
Free schools:
our education system has been dismembered in pursuit of choice
‘Our uneven and
unclear education provision now allows well-informed, persistent parents to
entrench social advantage.’
An article about how the English education
system is being gradually dismembered. Spot the similarities with New Zealand’s developing education agenda.
This next item isn’t educational but is well worth watching. Amazing eloquence!
Russell Brand interview.
Howard Gardner – developing a disciplined mind
This is a recursive link back to Bruce’s blog and this
excellent article.
‘The most important reason to develop disciplined
understanding is that
through achievement a desire for more is created. Once
one has understood something well an ‘appetite
has been whetted for additional and deeper understanding…..having
eaten from the tree of understanding, he or she is likely to return their
repeatedly for ever more satisfying intellectual nourishment’.’
How Soft Skills, Passion and Connection
Can Promote Learning, Competence and Employability
‘Jane McGonigal is an
ambitious alternate reality game designer who believes gaming has the potential
to unlock solutions to world hunger, poverty, and conflicts.’
Some Good News About Public Schools
Bashing the public school system, wherever,
is a prerequisite to introducing school reform. This must be countered with
everything we’ve got.
‘The public school
system is not broken. Just like the parents of most 15-year-olds, it is
overwhelmed and overworked. It is also underrated and underfunded. But still
our school system is pushing the world forward. We are as responsible for our
successes as for our failures.’
2 comments:
Russell Brand an unlikely catalyst for political change. Should be shared widely.
The future of every normal person depends on him visiting libraries and reading the books. The reason why I think so is because we all would like to be educated and this is a perfect chance to become one. Luckily we still have lots of libraries and books are being printed. I do not like the idea of digital books, but while there are still books we have a chance of becoming a great nation. So far kids do not write without making mistakes (check this link), their language is terrible and the education quality is not getting better. Thank you for the article.
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