--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DB400017 Date: 06/30/96 From: TOM COTTON Time: 12:00am \/To: MATT SMITH (Read 3 times) Subj: Re: National Curriculum MS>CB> TC>The state of Arkansas on three >CB> TC>occasions I know of tried to raise standards and was sued by the >CB> good >CB> TC>ole NAACP. >CB> >CB> I have not heard about this. Was the NAACP successful in its suits? MS> Does it matter whether the NAACP won? > Down here, this state faced disputes by activists claiming its hen-new >HS competency-for-graduation test was "racist" because a >higher share of blacks than whites failed it. Disputes >like this, regardless of who 'wins', discourage high >standards because officials fear disputes or litigation. Pretty perceptive Matt. The cases always cost money and are therefore avoided when possible. My position was always that we could outspend the __*()*_)*)(*_. Since I believe I herd the other day that the NAACP was having a little financial trouble that may very well be the case. What is really asinine is the simple fact that the funds spent on legal battles are taken away from the funds that could be used to educate children. ___ X QMPro 1.53 X All rising to a great place is by a winding stair. --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: North East Texas Datalink (1:3819/128) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DB400018 Date: 06/30/96 From: TOM COTTON Time: 12:00am \/To: DAN TRIPLETT (Read 3 times) Subj: Technology In Classroom DT>"Modern technology advanced in such tiny increments for so long that we >never realized how much our world was being altered, or the ultimate >direction of the process. But now the speed of change is accelerating >logarithmically. It is apparent that developing a language and set of >standards by which to assess technological impact, and to block it where >necessary, is a critical survival skill of our times". DT>Thoughts anyone?? When the newness wears off the INET will be far more useful that it is today for class room applications. It will be faster and more accessible as AT&T, MCI and numerous other providers set up dedicated resources. It will bring like minds together and segregate us further. Like all things it has its good and bad side. We do have options. We can reject the technology and return to an agrarian society. We can blindly embrace the technology and let it rule our lives. We can accept the technology and use it for the good of all where applicable and reject it where it threatens our lifestyle. We could do ten million other options. Perhaps that is the BEST thing about this new found entity is Individuals can self educate, share thought, teach others and share knowledge that before was only minimally accessible before to the masses. FREEDOM in its purest form, Freedom to communicate ideas. Lots of thoughts on the issue. Not many answers. I would agree that a basic education will be a prerequisite for those who wish to truly participate in the INET and its possibilities. That basic education would perhaps be better served if for the most part it is technology free and mind building intensive. Personal Opinion of course. TC ___ X QMPro 1.53 X All rising to a great place is by a winding stair. --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: North East Texas Datalink (1:3819/128) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DB400019 Date: 06/30/96 From: TOM COTTON Time: 12:00am \/To: ARTHUR ABEL (Read 3 times) Subj: Technology in Classroom While I have never accessed the "Darker Side" of the INET and don't advocate children doing so I am in full support of absolute freedom of expression on the NET. Parents do and should have the right to block their child access to the INET if they wish. Fortunately they do not have the right to block other children's access or the freedom of expression of others. It must be relatively difficult to ACCIDENTALLY access the DARKER SIDE or I am sure I would have been there by now. TC ___ X QMPro 1.53 X All rising to a great place is by a winding stair. --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: North East Texas Datalink (1:3819/128) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DB400020 Date: 06/30/96 From: TOM COTTON Time: 12:00am \/To: SHEILA KING (Read 3 times) Subj: Technology In Classroom SK>-> I know of educators that spend too much time exploring the novelties >-> of the WWW. SK>Well, I possibly fall into that category. It's true that it's easy to >spend a lot of time on the Web. But if these people are doing it in >their free time, time that would normally be spent on other hobbies and >amusements, then what's the harm in it? How can you say it is "too much" >time? When the kids cloths are not getting washed :) BTW, taught anyone else how to do the laundry yet ? I would agree with you here as what an individual does on their own time is their business. I think his point might have been that perhaps some teachers are using school time to roam the net. Perhaps they do not have access outside of school. When the newness wears off I believe serious education can be possible using or integrating the NET. SK>I think this last quote is certainly making a valid point. Technology is >advancing so rapidly that we don't even have time to evaluate its >appropriate use before something new has already been invented to take >its place. It's getting to be impossible to keep up with the new >advances. I'm not sure this is going to end in the new future. Whether that is good or bad I certainly don't know. ___ X QMPro 1.53 X All rising to a great place is by a winding stair. --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: North East Texas Datalink (1:3819/128) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DB400021 Date: 06/30/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 07:13pm \/To: ARTHUR ABEL (Read 4 times) Subj: Technology in Classroom -> "Greece, Fairport and Brighton schools have adopted policies -> requiring -> parents and student to sign forms saying they have talked about the -> issue [darker side of Internet] and that students won't choose to -> look at obscene material on the Internet." Yeah, sure! And while -> they are in a candy store with lots of money in their possession, -> they won't buy any candy either. Well, it might've been helpful if they'd had some consequence predetermined and written into the agreement, such as students losing access to the medium and/or being required to write apologies, etc.. depending on the infraction. Knowing in advance that there are some teeth in the agreement might help to deter some otherwise susceptible students to behave. Better yet, though, they should research some of the services for schools and families that help to eliminate a large portion of the inapporpriate materials, although nothing is full-proof. -> At least one set of parents didn't sign it because their church -> advised against it, Taylor said." (Notice how the reporter couldn't -> resist putting in something that seems to cast aspersions on -> religious beliefs.) Lamentable. :-( -> You can find all of Shakespeare's metaphors for death quickly in an -> electronic search of his works." Hooray! And for how many high -> school students would such information be relevant? It might've been nice if they'd given a more pertinent example. However, they often have only a limited amount of space for the article and can't put in a lot of examples. Leave it to a reporter to put in something that appeals to them and sounds snazy, rather than something more useful. A good example why we should seek multiple sources of information. -> "Taylor said students only used the computer when he was in the -> room--and -> he recommends parents similarly be involved in Internet use at home." -> Hope Sheila reads this. Here she has grounds for believing that all -> this increases distance between haves and have nots. Internet use -> requires fairly good computers and there is a monthly cost for such -> access. I personally, as a parent, resent such pressure from the -> schools my children attend. I'm not sure what reaction I'm supposed to have to this. While I sometimes resent pressures put on our family from the school, I can't really see that it is better to NOT have school Internet access (which is really not so expensive anymore if the hardware is already on the site). Also, from the short blurb that you post, I'm not sure that the school is really trying to apply pressure to families to get on line at home, or if you are just inferring it (I'm being cautious about whether you've somehow changed the context by your editing and quote selection...in the part that you quote I don't really see the school advising parents to get Internet access at home. What I see is a caution that IF there is Internet access at home, the parents see that the children are supervised in their Internet activities. There is a difference.) As for the widening gap between the haves and have-nots...the school should help to lessen this by allowing on-line access before and after school or at other times outside of class. Or perhaps the community could assist in access from the community public library, etc... I'd be interested to hear comments from Ken Blystone on this, if he is reading here still, since he has related before how his community (which I believe has a significant lower-income population) helps enable access for those who might otherwise not have it. Sheila --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DB400022 Date: 06/30/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 07:18pm \/To: FRANK TOPPING (Read 5 times) Subj: Hello Hi Frank, I can see that you are reading in this area, since you respond to messages occassionally (of the type that interest you). I would appreciate a response to my inquiry of a few weeks ago in which I asked why I am having difficulty reaching your system by netmail. I tried sending a private netmail to you, and my system seemed to connect, but then was told that it could not achieve an EMSI handshake and was not approved for access to your system. After three or four connects, I decided I didn't like paying the phone bill for connects that achieved no data transfer and have been holding the packet since. This was about three weeks ago. Perhaps the situation has changed (been fixed?)? Please advise how I can send you private mail, either through FidoNet or the Internet. Thank you, Sheila King Moderator, EDUCATOR 1:218/804 cking@cyberg8t.com --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DB400023 Date: 06/30/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 07:33pm \/To: BOB ANDERSON (Read 4 times) Subj: 'PUTER-TECH CURRICULM Hi Bob, -> I don't know how I missed Ron's message, as I've been nervously -> watching the echo sense the plot was posted. But miss it I did -> I hope he reposts his responce. You seem to have missed my two long responses as well, since you never replied to them. Ron has already mentioned that he no longer has copies, but I have both his post(s) and mine here and will save them off to a text file. I can repost it if necessary, but would prefer to send it to you privately, either FidoNet netmail, or EVEN BETTER by Internet e-mail. Please advise. If you do have an e-mail adress but don't wish to post it here publicly, you can mail it to me at cking@cyberg8t.com. -> Yup, old donated 286s and 8088s to learn on. Also.. I'm thinking -> that using the text commands to compress and decompress files is easy -> to learn and the understanding that results in doing that might make -> the graphical interface understandable when they have occasional -> (perhaps at home on more advanced machines) to use it. But then, I -> hope to have some machines capable of running html programs, the -> question is how many (not many at first I'd guess) and whether or not -> the learning that takes place on those machines will be focused on -> internet use and document creation. Wow. If you're using such old machines (wish you would've mentioned this in the previous post) then I would definitely NOT make any point of teaching operating systems at all. Students learn computer tasks best by actually doing, and if you won't have ample facilities for all students to have lots of hands-on time on the various machines, then I would focus on the applications. As far as HTML and so forth, without sufficient facilities, I'd probably scratch it. Well, another idea is to break the class up into groups (6 or so, whatever works best) and have different activities for each group: one doing word processing, one doing HTML, one doing keyboarding, etc... for a few weeks on appropriate hardware, then everyone switches and repeat until they all rotate through all the stations. -> ....so, now I'm sitting here thinking of a management bad dream ... -> each computer type, with it's own things to share..... well, -> September is awhile away still, It will have more shape by then, I -> pray. Personally, were I in your situation, I'd do the following: Assign each kid to a computer and that kid stays with that computer throughout the year. Then try to find the same or similar software for each of the platforms, so that everyone is doing the same activity. -> Wonderful idea. This brings up another point though,programing. The -> utility of batching in dos is self evident, but what about other -> kinds of programing.....say in qbasic, or, logo ? Should they be -> exposed in the 6th grade? and if so why? I didn't include programming -> in the syllabus because when I was asking people who taught Junior -> high computer what kinds of skills they'd like to see incomming -> students have, none of them mentioned programming. Yet it has come up -> several times talking with other people. (also, I don't know much -> about it myself, though I do plan to learn ) I wonder what other's -> think. Programming is an excellent idea, IMHO. Problem solving. Using the computer as a TOOL not the end in itself. And I can point you to LOTS of references on the Web that will give you excellent justifications for teaching programming to 6th graders and YOUNGER. Also, there is a free version of Logo put out by UC Berkley (I just downloaded it yesterday). It will even run on old DOS machines in only 640K, although this does sacrifice some of the performance. So, let me know if you'd like me to send those text files, and by what means. Or, if you like, I can repost them here to the echo. Sheila --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DB400024 Date: 06/30/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 07:37pm \/To: BOB ANDERSON (Read 4 times) Subj: 'Puter-Tech Curriculm 1/ -> You have some suggestions? I've left out applications in which -> the computer drills a skill, or acts as a tutor. I guess because -> I find myself wanting those areas addressed in more traditional -> ways. ( OK , I like to address them using people to people) I concur. Leave out the drills and tutorials. Those are for subject area, if at all. -> I submitted it here in this echo in the hopes that some kind and -> thoughtful smart people might add some positive imput. ( I guess -> it's a little like asking for help on my homework ) Don't apologize in ANY way for posting here. IMO that's one of the purposes of this echo! FWIW, I'm doing the same thing in other forums to get advise on the new AP Comp Sci course I'm teaching this Fall. Sheila --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DB400025 Date: 06/30/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 08:24pm \/To: BOB ANDERSON (Read 4 times) Subj: 'PUTER-TECH CURRICULM -> BB++> -=> On 06-14-96 20:38, Ron stunned Bob Anderson by spouting: -> -> I don't know how I missed Ron's message, as I've been nervously -> watching the echo sense the plot was posted. But miss it I did -> I hope he reposts his responce. Actually, I've found one message from Ron, two from myself, and three from Bob Moylan dated 6-14 or 6-15 which you seem to have missed, since you never remarked on them. One day's mail packet must've gotten lost somewhere. Sheila --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DB400026 Date: 06/30/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 08:28pm \/To: ALL (Read 4 times) Subj: Educator Guidelines EDUCATOR Rules Submitted on 28 Apr 96 EDUCATOR.RUL ====================================== | Purpose of the EDUCATOR conference | ====================================== The EDUCATOR conference is an electronic meeting place where Educators from around the world can gather to discuss issues related to their profession. (This area is NOT a complaint forum for the general public on the sad state of education. Furthermore, it is difficult to appreciate another person's position until one has "walked a mile in their shoes". Non-professional educators should refrain from critical remarks on the length of teachers' work schedules, their motivation and dedication, their reasons for choosing their profession and the like. Such remarks are non-productive and off-topic. Similarly, comparisons between professions attempting to show teachers do no more or no less than persons in other professions are off-topic.) =========================================================== | GUIDELINES for participation in the EDUCATOR Conference | =========================================================== 1. TREAT OTHERS WITH RESPECT. Do not engage in name calling or "flaming" with other individuals. Likewise, insults against groups or professions will not be tolerated. If discussion does not lead you to agree with others, politely agree to disagree. If a message makes you mad, either do not reply, or wait a day or two to reply until you have "cooled off". 2. WRITE MESSAGES OF GENERAL INTEREST. Observe the purpose of this echo and do not post "off-topic" messages (see below). Off-topic responses should be handled in netmail. Use local echoes on your BBS for personal exchanges. This is an international conference. Persons in Australia do not care about your meeting in NY. 3. BE BRIEF. Quote just enough of the message to which you are replying to remind others of the context of your reply. Do not repeat yourself in multiple messages. Do not post LONG texts from other sources (more than 3 or 4 pages). If unsure, check with the Moderator before posting. Enter only a few messages each day. 4. IGNORE INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES. Let the Moderator and Sysops do their job. Do not respond to such posts nor discuss them in the conference. You may send netmail or e-mail to the Moderator or bring it to your Sysop's attention. 5. TAKE DIRECTION FROM THE MODERATOR GRACEFULLY, whether it occurs in private netmail or in the conference. It is no big deal and there is no need to discuss it. Just get back on track so we can all enjoy this forum. OFF-TOPIC SUBJECTS. DO NOT DISCUSS THESE IN THIS AREA: ======================================================= Creationism vs. Evolution, Politics, Religion, Separation of Church & State, Homeschooling. There are other appropriate conferences for these topics. In conclusion, please enjoy participating here. Take what you can learn from the echo. Contribute with a mind towards being informative and constructive. And if I can be of any help, let me know. Sheila King Moderator, EDUCATOR 1:218/804 cking@cyberg8t.com --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804)