Well I agree that the funding laws lead to some choices that are simply ridiculous, as someone who has taught primarily in high need districts (97% free school lunch and 60+ free school lunch) having some equity in funding is important. The divide between the haves and have nots is appreciable in Michigan but it was much worse before prop A (the law that changed school funding in Michigan). And it sometimes amazes me how much larger the divide between schools in poor neighborhoods and rich neighborhoods are in some other states. Obviously there are many possibly solutions and we probably have 52 attempts at funding once you include DC, military bases and Porto Rico.
And in Michigan you can use property taxes for iPads, computers, iwbs, batting cages and other capital expenses. You can't use property taxes for salaries, books or pencils. So my district cuts my salary 10% (and every other teacher and administrator by the same amount) and begs for pencils but we do actually have interactive white boards. Funding of public schools is incredibly complicated as it involves federal, state and local monies and federal and state laws and everything varies drastically state to state. And obviously this doesn't even scratch the surface of how grants work.
I will readily agree that there are hundreds of variables with education. I also know that if I did not have my IWB from changing school districts I would make my own using the MIT hack using a wii remote because it is that powerful in my classroom. But all I heard from you for the first few posts had nothing to do with the complexity of teaching, education and funding. What you were writing and claiming was that I didn't need applets (and shouldn't be using them), I should use a private website rather than a file server, I should write paper tests using html and choose to use incompatible software with the rest of my profession, etc.
But what is really odd is that you started saying that AN IPAD WAS BETTER THAN A LAPTOP! My solutions to technology was more powerful and cheaper than what you advocated 10 messages up. Now however, you seem entirely against any electronic technology.
What State?! I told you the funding varies greatly State by State. As do laws. In Michigan property taxes can only be used for capital improvements, buildings, computer hardware (not software), etc. And these are subject to legal requirements, it isn't cart blanch then. To be more equitable from rich districts and poor districts all general funds are provided by the state at approximate $7000 per student per year. That way Okemos and Detroit are on more equal funding footing. Federal money tends to be used for special education, title 1 and title 2, each of which have their own requirements. And you do not want to be paying for a full time teacher for one student out of your general fund depending on the needs of your students (this will occasionally happen with severe medical problems). So no, in Michigan it is much more than 10%; however, I would guess that your local district does not have the ability to throw away 10% of their funding even if they have to jump through some hoops. Pragmatism matters.
I am a BETTER teacher with my "toys." My students gain deeper understanding because I am willing to spend days writing my "toys." I have taught with a chalk board and my students learned and learned well. It does not compare to what I am able to do now. And how nice that your nana's taught and I would be happy to have a conversation with them. However, how many education classes have you had? How many students have you taught? With what methods? How many parents have you called?
This is my seventh year teaching. That does not include a full year of student teaching, teaching summer school in Detroit, teaching summer school in Lansing. I have taught in the suburbs, the inner city and for the last five years in a rural district. I have had a chalk board, a book and nothing else and I have had the above and a projector and I now have an interactive whiteboard. I am three credits from a Masters in Education Technology. That's my background, hell, you can even look at some of my applets on efitton.net.
And if you want to see me using my interactive board and an applet as part of my essay for MSU that is a couple of years old: http://efitton.net/#VideoGoalsEssay. If you are bored you could also search google for "Eric Fitton." I believe my blog from my MSU classes the summer of 2011 is in the top five hits: efitton.edublogs.org or if you want to know what I've been up to this last summer: profile.efitton.net.
Not only does the whiteboard help with student understanding, it also gains me about ten minutes of instruction time every hour. If you want to look at my other posts on this thread you might also learn something about school funding at that while there are diminishing returns, IWBs are not cutting into teacher salaries, staff size or books. The funding pools are incredibly complex. So I guess what I am saying, is that I have the education and experience that makes me an expert in this situation. And you can pry my IWB out of my cold, dead hands.
Yes, lets get rid of 80% of our funding. We'll be so much better off. Class sizes of 60 but we won't have a tv in the hallway and we still won't have new books.
Seriously, do 3 seconds of research before commenting.
Additionally, ignoring that hmtl is suppose to be written for the web and not for paper (and believe it or not I like paper tests) and html doesn't guarantee format for the printed page, the pain of log base 2 of x is equal to 9 is not trivial to type. Given that I can put my test as a word document or pdf on an internal file server or on a cloud server you have made my life harder with zero benefit. Thanks.
You doubt I need teaching applets? Really? And I don't just USE teaching applets I WRITE THEM! With my interactive whiteboard why would I want to use dynamic geometry software?
Look, the entire ecosystem used the gateway drug. Thats the reality. So I can be incompatible with every other math teacher in the world and have my students learn less and make you happy or I can use just a hint of pragmatism and use the same software as everyone else.
So 40 teachers share 2 laptops and then just iPads. This is beyond facepalm.
We have fancy technology and we are broke. Why? Because we can pay for fancy technology, sports facilities and classroom facilities with property taxes. We can only pay for teachers, books, etc. out of the general fund supplied by the state which has been slashed repeatedly the last few years. You have no idea the complexity of the laws when you have local, state and federal funding and they all slightly overlap. And yes, you get a different set of red tape in every state. So thank you for being judgmental but it isn't because we are pissing money away. We have money to use for some budget items and then trying to teach classes of 30+ kids with 40 year old history books because with that fund, we are flat broke.
You can pry my interactive whiteboard out of my cold, dead hands. Dynamic Geometry software is a godsend. GeoGebra helps my students actually make sense of things like Geometric Constructions, Geometry Theorems and Logarithms. So until you have actually taught for a week with at least two different methods I'll be ignoring all of your advice for teachers.
If this had happened in the U.S. I could almost guarantee that it was either a grant or some corner case of how schools are funded and allowed to budget. My school doesn't have books (well some of them are 40 years old) but we have interactive white boards. We passed a bond measure for technology but books, teacher salaries, etc. in my state need to be paid out of the general fund which is always being slashed. So we end up buying tvs for the hallway that no one will watch because that purchase is allowed with bond money, while getting a new set of history books is beyond our reach. I'm guessing 99% of you have no idea the complexity of how funding works in most schools in the U.S.
The other option is a grant. Someone writes a long proposal and gets someone else to buy a bunch of iWhatevers. This is going to happen in one shot or not at all. You can't roll out a grant out over multiple years and decide halfway through that your idea was bad and you now want to spend the money a different way. It simply doesn't work that way. And many school systems might have 40 teachers, 2 principals, 3 or 4 secretaries, an athletic director and one IT person. You make it work as best you can. This often isn't a concerted plan because there isn't a group to do the plan and everyone is running around trying to accomplish about a dozen different things wearing a dozen different hats. The IT person is probably changing a bulb in a projector, running over to a different building because a student removed a component of a cdrom, ghosting a machine with a virus, installing software for a virtual class, and then trying to knock out a technology plan that needs to be submitted to the state for a rubber stamp that no one will look at anyhow. This isn't GE folks. On the other hand, this is all one off activities. The actual goal is to help students learn material, help them become good citizens, and about five hundred different tasks. And don't forget to call a few parents this week and make it to a football game.
You want me to type a test about logarithms with keynote? What am I suppose to create my teaching applets with?
You have no idea what teachers actually do. I need to stop coming to Slashdot. They keep throwing up poor education articles and having the masses tell us what is wrong with no experience. Remember what it is like when someone without training or education tells you incorrect information about programming patterns? Occasionally it would be a good idea to listen to computer experts talk about computers, climate scientist talk about climate change and a teacher or two talk about education.
In the meantime I need to brush up on LaTeX and install LyX again but most worksheets, tests, investigative tasks, etc. are all typed with a version of Word and Microsoft's Formula Editor. Not having a compatible formula editor is a nonstarter.
I've installed every version of windows from 3.1 to 7 (except Vista) on commodity components I put together myself. While the number of reboots is annoying, it hasn't been difficult for a dozen years. At one point Linux was a bit easier to install, but that certainly hasn't been my experience lately (Linux has been on every box except my latest, that might be telling. Hell at one point I didn't even duel boot, strictly Linux. Now, strictly Windows. Makes me sad but I have work to do). The first time I went dual head was awful with Linux (obviously a bit better five years on) but cake with Windows. PATA RAID and Linux was quite the adventure. I think I had a couple of ten page install guides printed out and a laptop nearby for that one. Again, no issues with Windows. Sure Debian will let you do software raid in the kernel, but they consider my network card nonfree and the documented fix did not work. Mint installs but doesn't have software raid as an install option.
So yeah, Windows installs are easy, even for complicated generic hardware options. Linux has become a PITA. And then once you have it installed we now have desktop environments that are worse than what we had four years ago. Who hoo, progress.
With apologies to those who do love XFCE, I don't know that most people like XFCE and really think that it is good enough. Most people are switching to XFCE not because it is good enough but because it is better than the abominations that are GNOME 3 and KDE 4.
What am I suppose to do with two computers when I have 30 students in the class who are all responsible for the same state standards? Am I suppose to use the two computers so the money isn't "wasted" even though I have no research that indicates that it will be helpful and have not seen a realistic plan for how this will help even two students learn better without missing the content that the rest of the class is doing? There is a reason I'm not using those two sad little computers in the back of the room; they wouldn't help me achieve my goal of student learning.
As an Algebra II teacher I see students every year who are harmed and impeded because they do not know their multiplication tables. 20x + 15 -> 5(4x + 3) and you get "where did the 5 and the 4 come from?". This is not good. Long division is good. The who idea of algorithms, limits (we are approaching from below) and when I actually go to divide polynomials they might have a snowballs chance in hell. So yeah, in high school it's too late and students use calculators, but don't tell me that their lack of basic math is not an impediment.
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Well I agree that the funding laws lead to some choices that are simply ridiculous, as someone who has taught primarily in high need districts (97% free school lunch and 60+ free school lunch) having some equity in funding is important. The divide between the haves and have nots is appreciable in Michigan but it was much worse before prop A (the law that changed school funding in Michigan). And it sometimes amazes me how much larger the divide between schools in poor neighborhoods and rich neighborhoods are in some other states. Obviously there are many possibly solutions and we probably have 52 attempts at funding once you include DC, military bases and Porto Rico.
And in Michigan you can use property taxes for iPads, computers, iwbs, batting cages and other capital expenses. You can't use property taxes for salaries, books or pencils. So my district cuts my salary 10% (and every other teacher and administrator by the same amount) and begs for pencils but we do actually have interactive white boards. Funding of public schools is incredibly complicated as it involves federal, state and local monies and federal and state laws and everything varies drastically state to state. And obviously this doesn't even scratch the surface of how grants work.
I will readily agree that there are hundreds of variables with education. I also know that if I did not have my IWB from changing school districts I would make my own using the MIT hack using a wii remote because it is that powerful in my classroom. But all I heard from you for the first few posts had nothing to do with the complexity of teaching, education and funding. What you were writing and claiming was that I didn't need applets (and shouldn't be using them), I should use a private website rather than a file server, I should write paper tests using html and choose to use incompatible software with the rest of my profession, etc.
But what is really odd is that you started saying that AN IPAD WAS BETTER THAN A LAPTOP! My solutions to technology was more powerful and cheaper than what you advocated 10 messages up. Now however, you seem entirely against any electronic technology.
What State?! I told you the funding varies greatly State by State. As do laws. In Michigan property taxes can only be used for capital improvements, buildings, computer hardware (not software), etc. And these are subject to legal requirements, it isn't cart blanch then. To be more equitable from rich districts and poor districts all general funds are provided by the state at approximate $7000 per student per year. That way Okemos and Detroit are on more equal funding footing. Federal money tends to be used for special education, title 1 and title 2, each of which have their own requirements. And you do not want to be paying for a full time teacher for one student out of your general fund depending on the needs of your students (this will occasionally happen with severe medical problems). So no, in Michigan it is much more than 10%; however, I would guess that your local district does not have the ability to throw away 10% of their funding even if they have to jump through some hoops. Pragmatism matters.
I am a BETTER teacher with my "toys." My students gain deeper understanding because I am willing to spend days writing my "toys." I have taught with a chalk board and my students learned and learned well. It does not compare to what I am able to do now. And how nice that your nana's taught and I would be happy to have a conversation with them. However, how many education classes have you had? How many students have you taught? With what methods? How many parents have you called?
This is my seventh year teaching. That does not include a full year of student teaching, teaching summer school in Detroit, teaching summer school in Lansing. I have taught in the suburbs, the inner city and for the last five years in a rural district. I have had a chalk board, a book and nothing else and I have had the above and a projector and I now have an interactive whiteboard. I am three credits from a Masters in Education Technology. That's my background, hell, you can even look at some of my applets on efitton.net.
And if you want to see me using my interactive board and an applet as part of my essay for MSU that is a couple of years old: http://efitton.net/#VideoGoalsEssay. If you are bored you could also search google for "Eric Fitton." I believe my blog from my MSU classes the summer of 2011 is in the top five hits: efitton.edublogs.org or if you want to know what I've been up to this last summer: profile.efitton.net.
Not only does the whiteboard help with student understanding, it also gains me about ten minutes of instruction time every hour. If you want to look at my other posts on this thread you might also learn something about school funding at that while there are diminishing returns, IWBs are not cutting into teacher salaries, staff size or books. The funding pools are incredibly complex. So I guess what I am saying, is that I have the education and experience that makes me an expert in this situation. And you can pry my IWB out of my cold, dead hands.
Yes, lets get rid of 80% of our funding. We'll be so much better off. Class sizes of 60 but we won't have a tv in the hallway and we still won't have new books.
Seriously, do 3 seconds of research before commenting.
Additionally, ignoring that hmtl is suppose to be written for the web and not for paper (and believe it or not I like paper tests) and html doesn't guarantee format for the printed page, the pain of log base 2 of x is equal to 9 is not trivial to type. Given that I can put my test as a word document or pdf on an internal file server or on a cloud server you have made my life harder with zero benefit. Thanks.
Facepalm. Yes, we have that kind of money (I can't even type that with a straight face). Or I can use any real computer in the world.
You doubt I need teaching applets? Really? And I don't just USE teaching applets I WRITE THEM! With my interactive whiteboard why would I want to use dynamic geometry software?
Look, the entire ecosystem used the gateway drug. Thats the reality. So I can be incompatible with every other math teacher in the world and have my students learn less and make you happy or I can use just a hint of pragmatism and use the same software as everyone else.
So 40 teachers share 2 laptops and then just iPads. This is beyond facepalm.
We have fancy technology and we are broke. Why? Because we can pay for fancy technology, sports facilities and classroom facilities with property taxes. We can only pay for teachers, books, etc. out of the general fund supplied by the state which has been slashed repeatedly the last few years. You have no idea the complexity of the laws when you have local, state and federal funding and they all slightly overlap. And yes, you get a different set of red tape in every state. So thank you for being judgmental but it isn't because we are pissing money away. We have money to use for some budget items and then trying to teach classes of 30+ kids with 40 year old history books because with that fund, we are flat broke.
You can pry my interactive whiteboard out of my cold, dead hands. Dynamic Geometry software is a godsend. GeoGebra helps my students actually make sense of things like Geometric Constructions, Geometry Theorems and Logarithms. So until you have actually taught for a week with at least two different methods I'll be ignoring all of your advice for teachers.
If this had happened in the U.S. I could almost guarantee that it was either a grant or some corner case of how schools are funded and allowed to budget. My school doesn't have books (well some of them are 40 years old) but we have interactive white boards. We passed a bond measure for technology but books, teacher salaries, etc. in my state need to be paid out of the general fund which is always being slashed. So we end up buying tvs for the hallway that no one will watch because that purchase is allowed with bond money, while getting a new set of history books is beyond our reach. I'm guessing 99% of you have no idea the complexity of how funding works in most schools in the U.S.
The other option is a grant. Someone writes a long proposal and gets someone else to buy a bunch of iWhatevers. This is going to happen in one shot or not at all. You can't roll out a grant out over multiple years and decide halfway through that your idea was bad and you now want to spend the money a different way. It simply doesn't work that way. And many school systems might have 40 teachers, 2 principals, 3 or 4 secretaries, an athletic director and one IT person. You make it work as best you can. This often isn't a concerted plan because there isn't a group to do the plan and everyone is running around trying to accomplish about a dozen different things wearing a dozen different hats. The IT person is probably changing a bulb in a projector, running over to a different building because a student removed a component of a cdrom, ghosting a machine with a virus, installing software for a virtual class, and then trying to knock out a technology plan that needs to be submitted to the state for a rubber stamp that no one will look at anyhow. This isn't GE folks. On the other hand, this is all one off activities. The actual goal is to help students learn material, help them become good citizens, and about five hundred different tasks. And don't forget to call a few parents this week and make it to a football game.
You want me to type a test about logarithms with keynote? What am I suppose to create my teaching applets with?
You have no idea what teachers actually do. I need to stop coming to Slashdot. They keep throwing up poor education articles and having the masses tell us what is wrong with no experience. Remember what it is like when someone without training or education tells you incorrect information about programming patterns? Occasionally it would be a good idea to listen to computer experts talk about computers, climate scientist talk about climate change and a teacher or two talk about education.
In the meantime I need to brush up on LaTeX and install LyX again but most worksheets, tests, investigative tasks, etc. are all typed with a version of Word and Microsoft's Formula Editor. Not having a compatible formula editor is a nonstarter.
I've installed every version of windows from 3.1 to 7 (except Vista) on commodity components I put together myself. While the number of reboots is annoying, it hasn't been difficult for a dozen years. At one point Linux was a bit easier to install, but that certainly hasn't been my experience lately (Linux has been on every box except my latest, that might be telling. Hell at one point I didn't even duel boot, strictly Linux. Now, strictly Windows. Makes me sad but I have work to do). The first time I went dual head was awful with Linux (obviously a bit better five years on) but cake with Windows. PATA RAID and Linux was quite the adventure. I think I had a couple of ten page install guides printed out and a laptop nearby for that one. Again, no issues with Windows. Sure Debian will let you do software raid in the kernel, but they consider my network card nonfree and the documented fix did not work. Mint installs but doesn't have software raid as an install option.
So yeah, Windows installs are easy, even for complicated generic hardware options. Linux has become a PITA. And then once you have it installed we now have desktop environments that are worse than what we had four years ago. Who hoo, progress.
With apologies to those who do love XFCE, I don't know that most people like XFCE and really think that it is good enough. Most people are switching to XFCE not because it is good enough but because it is better than the abominations that are GNOME 3 and KDE 4.
What am I suppose to do with two computers when I have 30 students in the class who are all responsible for the same state standards? Am I suppose to use the two computers so the money isn't "wasted" even though I have no research that indicates that it will be helpful and have not seen a realistic plan for how this will help even two students learn better without missing the content that the rest of the class is doing? There is a reason I'm not using those two sad little computers in the back of the room; they wouldn't help me achieve my goal of student learning.
As an Algebra II teacher I see students every year who are harmed and impeded because they do not know their multiplication tables. 20x + 15 -> 5(4x + 3) and you get "where did the 5 and the 4 come from?". This is not good. Long division is good. The who idea of algorithms, limits (we are approaching from below) and when I actually go to divide polynomials they might have a snowballs chance in hell. So yeah, in high school it's too late and students use calculators, but don't tell me that their lack of basic math is not an impediment.
efitton.net