College Prep

I just read a disturbing report from WestEd, the new Western Regional Educational Library. The gist of the report is that in low income and high minority schools, students all too often fall well short of the classes required for minimum qualification to the UC and CSU systems. Although revisions to the admission policies for both systems allow for top students from virtually every school in California to enter, without the required classes these students can't even be considered. The gap grows wider because no one is seeing to it that these students take what they need to go on.

 

The report is called "Course-taking patterns and preparation for postsecondary education in California's public university systems among minority youth", and is available at http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs.

 

Who is minding the store?

 

Tom

Administrator input

I had dinner with a school administrator from Arizona the other night. I took the opportunity to pick his brain about the use of technology in schools. I heard much of what I expected, such as the growing demand for technology, but so much of the rest of what he said was lip service. Coordination of technology is not enough; that coordination has to start with a full integration of technology into the curriculum. I hope that the powers that be will eventually see technology as the important component it is, instead of just throwing money willy-nilly at schools and hoping they can do something with it.

 

In that vein, I Googled my name the other day (come on, you do that too!) and found that someone at Murray State in Kentucky (The Kentucky Academy of Technology Education) had found one of the WebQuests I designed and offered it as a resource for teachers. They even listed the Kentucky standards that it meets - there are 28 of them! Take a look at their site at http://coekate.murraystate.edu/kate/tick/resource/1366/. Gee, maybe I'll be famous (NOT!).

 

Tom

Is technology overused?

The Alliance for Childhood (http://allianceforchildhood.org/index.htm) makes the point that kids need play and other childhood activity more than they need computers and other technology. What do you think? Have we overdone things technologically?

Do you use technology?

So tell us - do you use technology in your classroom? If you do, tell us how you use it - instruction, communication, presentation? I know that most classrooms are wired, but do you have the equipment you need to really capitalize on technology?

Welcome to TTF

I would like to welcome you to the Teacher Technology Forum blog. I'll be posting discussion points and would appreciate your feedback. Of course, you are free to post your own questions or comments to get this all started.