I don't think the powers behind Code.org and the B&M Gates Foundation care about bringing more students into unviersities. They are trying to bring more CS students into universities. Those students would probably be going to college anyway so it would be revenue-neutral for the schools.
MR. SMITH: "One of the things I've learned from all of the various anti-trust and intellectual property negotiations I've handled over the years is this, sometimes when a small problem proves intractable you have to make it bigger. You have to make the problem big enough so that the solution is exciting enough to galvanize people's attention..."
That actually makes my point. The summary states that they fabricated a crisis, but what you just posted shows that they thought it was a smaller problem that just needed to be made bigger to find a solution.
Not sure where the idea comes from that they are "producing a crisis" or "fabricating a crisis." Everything from the articles and PowerPoint appear to show that they were trying to bring awareness to an already existing crisis. At least they believed it was already a crisis. Not nearly as underhanded as TFA makes it out to be.
That's exactly what they're doing. From the USA Today article:
This means that people who use Google to search on their smartphone may not find many of their favorite sites at the top of the rankings. Sites that haven't updated could find themselves ranked way lower, which in turn could mean a huge loss of business.
I apparently chose not to read that part. I agree that the classes aren't where you necessarily learn how to be a teacher. I think management is emphasized because that is what most teachers fail at early on in their careers. You learn your pedagogy from your supervising teacher during student teaching, but that can be a bad thing if you don't have a good supervising teacher.
Did you not go through the student teaching process? That's the ultimate test of your ability to teach and where a lot of potential teachers realize they aren't cut out for teaching.
If it looks for passive movement data, why not create a bunch of accounts and put some old cell phones to good use broadcasting traffic data? Hook them up to wireless, use a VPN if needed to mask the IP, and show "cars" stopped. You could add in accident reports to make it more realistic. Maybe even some VMs running an iPhone simulator to increase the number of spoofed cars. Remember, technology is your friend if used correctly; just don't get any on you...
The problem is there would be more cars moving through the area than the "stopped" cars. Waze ignores obviously false reports as it states in the article.
So the trend seems to be to give the OS away for free as Apple, Google, Linux (for the most part) are doing. Microsoft decides to be different any make people constantly pay for the OS instead of just paying up front. Sounds like a great plan, and I really hope it stays in the rumor realm.
I wish I had mod points right now. The GigaOm article explain the issue much clearer. I originally thought the Like button just shared the video watched, not the entire viewing history. That makes a big difference
Also, most states only have one of these evaluative tests a year, so you're not comparing students to their own scores, you're comparing them to the scores of the previous year's class.
If that's how the test is being interpreted, the administrators are idiots.
You have test results for each class from last year, look at the difference between those results and the results from this year. That gives you the change in test results as affected by the teacher under scrutiny.
This isn't quantum loop gravity, if your only argument against holding teachers to a standard is that the administration is too stupid to apply one correctly, then it's time to nuke the whole district and start over.
It's harder than it seems. First of all, it's the states who administer these exams, not the schools. The public schools have no choice as to how or when these exams are administered. Students are held to different standards during each school year so comparing them to their scores from the previous year doesn't make sense since the material isn't the same.
Also, how do you evaluate teachers who teach non-core subjects such as music, PE, or computer science? The whole data driven movement in schools is fine, but not everything in education can be quantified. Teaching is more of an art than it is a science.
"First off, getting stuck with a class of crappy students can cost you your job . .."
No, that's not how the evaluations would work. The improvement of individual students could be tracked and evaluated against the standard.
"Once they receive tenure, they should no longer be subject to evaluation . .."
That should not be true of anyone.
Is it really fair to judge a teacher on a test that doesn't mean anything to the students? Also, most states only have one of these evaluative tests a year, so you're not comparing students to their own scores, you're comparing them to the scores of the previous year's class. So the class of crappy students certainly could cost a teacher their job if their previous class was much better.
2 when they hit K5 1 separate the boys from the girls (outside of Dance Class and Recess)
This has been tried before and it's been found to not work. It's one of the few things in education that has been pretty much proven not to work. I just read an article the other day about seperating by gender, and it just serves to reinforce sterotypes when the genders are not together. Boys are allowed more freedom to move around since "boys will be boys" when there are girls who could use freedom of movement as well. If you were going to break up classes, break them up by the way they learn.
I don't know if Microsoft paid them, but GoDaddy did move all of their parked sites to IIS by default instead of Apache, which caused a major percentage change for Microsoft.
Most high schools don't force you to take the exam. The exam itself has no affect on your high school grade. It only determines if you get college credit or not.
Almost no colleges offer credit for taking AP tests regardless of score so high schoolers have absolutely no reason whatsoever to take those tests. You can either study for just your real final exams that actually go into your grades or you can add in an even harder test that benefits you in no way. Hmm, tough one. Oh and they typically charge money to take the tests as well.
That's not true at all. You can go to the College Board website and search by school to find what they offer credit for. I got half a semester of credit from AP exams when I was in high school.
Most colleges accept APCS for credit. Of the top 5 CS schools (Stanford, Cal Berkley, Carnegie Mellon, U of I, and MIT) only MIT doesn't accept APCS, but MIT doesn't accept any AP exams.
If it's truly faulty hardware Apple will typically own up to it and offer repairs free of charge. I have the 2008 MBP that had a logic board issue and Apple replaced it for free even though I was well past the warranty and didn't have AppleCare.
When I emailed the teacher (they don't answer the phone)
Do you expect a teacher to answer the phone during the school day? Elementary teachers typically only have about 30 - 45 minutes of prep time during the day when they aren't directly working with kids. Even if you called after school, that is usually the time teachers are using to make copies, work with other teachers, etc. It isn't like a desk job where you can answer the phone the moment it rings.
However, you do have an argument if teachers are not returning your calls. My school district tells us we should return calls within 24 hours, and that's something I try to stick too. Most parents find email easier themselves, but I understand a phone call can sometimes clarify the situation quicker.
Actually, the NHL streamed the Stanley Cup finals for free on their website this past season. I don't know if they did it during the entire playoffs, but I was very happily surprised to see at least one of the major sports getting with the modern times. I'd be more than willing to pay for a streaming sports package, but they all seem to blackout local teams, which defeats the purpose for me.
I teach CS and my students never have homework. One of the benefits of a CS class is the flipped model that allows most, if not all, of the work to be completed in class.
This clearly indicates how out of touch your expectations of the public school system are. Even in the early 90s, I never dealt with the Bill of Rights or the Constitution as a whole in school. Not even in civics class. The only time we ever discussed it was in third grade, when we each had to remember one paragraph of the pre-amble in class and repeat it. One paragraph.. of the preamble...
Not sure what state you went to school in, but in Illinois we have a required class on government in high school where the study of the Bill of Rights and Constitution are a big part of the curriculum. We also had to pass a state test on the Constitution to pass 8th grade. It's surprising, and disappointing, to hear that isn't the norm in other parts of the country.
I graduated from a large state university 10 years ago and there was an entire course on concurrent programming. It wasn't required at the time for CS, but I believe it is now.
I can't agree with this any more. I had some similar thoughts when I was getting my CS degree, but I now consider the things I learned in college invaluable. Most online tutorials don't teach you about reliability and efficiency and it's good to have the theory you learned in college to back up the programming you'll do as a web developer.
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I don't think the powers behind Code.org and the B&M Gates Foundation care about bringing more students into unviersities. They are trying to bring more CS students into universities. Those students would probably be going to college anyway so it would be revenue-neutral for the schools.
MR. SMITH: "One of the things I've learned from all of the various anti-trust and intellectual property negotiations I've handled over the years is this, sometimes when a small problem proves intractable you have to make it bigger. You have to make the problem big enough so that the solution is exciting enough to galvanize people's attention..."
That actually makes my point. The summary states that they fabricated a crisis, but what you just posted shows that they thought it was a smaller problem that just needed to be made bigger to find a solution.
Not sure where the idea comes from that they are "producing a crisis" or "fabricating a crisis." Everything from the articles and PowerPoint appear to show that they were trying to bring awareness to an already existing crisis. At least they believed it was already a crisis. Not nearly as underhanded as TFA makes it out to be.
This means that people who use Google to search on their smartphone may not find many of their favorite sites at the top of the rankings. Sites that haven't updated could find themselves ranked way lower, which in turn could mean a huge loss of business.
I apparently chose not to read that part. I agree that the classes aren't where you necessarily learn how to be a teacher. I think management is emphasized because that is what most teachers fail at early on in their careers. You learn your pedagogy from your supervising teacher during student teaching, but that can be a bad thing if you don't have a good supervising teacher.
Did you not go through the student teaching process? That's the ultimate test of your ability to teach and where a lot of potential teachers realize they aren't cut out for teaching.
If it looks for passive movement data, why not create a bunch of accounts and put some old cell phones to good use broadcasting traffic data? Hook them up to wireless, use a VPN if needed to mask the IP, and show "cars" stopped. You could add in accident reports to make it more realistic. Maybe even some VMs running an iPhone simulator to increase the number of spoofed cars. Remember, technology is your friend if used correctly; just don't get any on you...
The problem is there would be more cars moving through the area than the "stopped" cars. Waze ignores obviously false reports as it states in the article.
So the trend seems to be to give the OS away for free as Apple, Google, Linux (for the most part) are doing. Microsoft decides to be different any make people constantly pay for the OS instead of just paying up front. Sounds like a great plan, and I really hope it stays in the rumor realm.
I kept looking for a "next page" link. That article didn't go into any depth whatsoever.
I wish I had mod points right now. The GigaOm article explain the issue much clearer. I originally thought the Like button just shared the video watched, not the entire viewing history. That makes a big difference
Also, most states only have one of these evaluative tests a year, so you're not comparing students to their own scores, you're comparing them to the scores of the previous year's class.
If that's how the test is being interpreted, the administrators are idiots. You have test results for each class from last year, look at the difference between those results and the results from this year. That gives you the change in test results as affected by the teacher under scrutiny.
This isn't quantum loop gravity, if your only argument against holding teachers to a standard is that the administration is too stupid to apply one correctly, then it's time to nuke the whole district and start over.
It's harder than it seems. First of all, it's the states who administer these exams, not the schools. The public schools have no choice as to how or when these exams are administered. Students are held to different standards during each school year so comparing them to their scores from the previous year doesn't make sense since the material isn't the same. Also, how do you evaluate teachers who teach non-core subjects such as music, PE, or computer science? The whole data driven movement in schools is fine, but not everything in education can be quantified. Teaching is more of an art than it is a science.
"First off, getting stuck with a class of crappy students can cost you your job . . ."
No, that's not how the evaluations would work. The improvement of individual students could be tracked and evaluated against the standard.
"Once they receive tenure, they should no longer be subject to evaluation . . ."
That should not be true of anyone.
Is it really fair to judge a teacher on a test that doesn't mean anything to the students? Also, most states only have one of these evaluative tests a year, so you're not comparing students to their own scores, you're comparing them to the scores of the previous year's class. So the class of crappy students certainly could cost a teacher their job if their previous class was much better.
2 when they hit K5 1 separate the boys from the girls (outside of Dance Class and Recess)
This has been tried before and it's been found to not work. It's one of the few things in education that has been pretty much proven not to work. I just read an article the other day about seperating by gender, and it just serves to reinforce sterotypes when the genders are not together. Boys are allowed more freedom to move around since "boys will be boys" when there are girls who could use freedom of movement as well. If you were going to break up classes, break them up by the way they learn.
I don't know if Microsoft paid them, but GoDaddy did move all of their parked sites to IIS by default instead of Apache, which caused a major percentage change for Microsoft.
Most high schools don't force you to take the exam. The exam itself has no affect on your high school grade. It only determines if you get college credit or not.
Almost no colleges offer credit for taking AP tests regardless of score so high schoolers have absolutely no reason whatsoever to take those tests. You can either study for just your real final exams that actually go into your grades or you can add in an even harder test that benefits you in no way. Hmm, tough one. Oh and they typically charge money to take the tests as well.
That's not true at all. You can go to the College Board website and search by school to find what they offer credit for. I got half a semester of credit from AP exams when I was in high school.
Most colleges accept APCS for credit. Of the top 5 CS schools (Stanford, Cal Berkley, Carnegie Mellon, U of I, and MIT) only MIT doesn't accept APCS, but MIT doesn't accept any AP exams.
If it's truly faulty hardware Apple will typically own up to it and offer repairs free of charge. I have the 2008 MBP that had a logic board issue and Apple replaced it for free even though I was well past the warranty and didn't have AppleCare.
When I emailed the teacher (they don't answer the phone)
Do you expect a teacher to answer the phone during the school day? Elementary teachers typically only have about 30 - 45 minutes of prep time during the day when they aren't directly working with kids. Even if you called after school, that is usually the time teachers are using to make copies, work with other teachers, etc. It isn't like a desk job where you can answer the phone the moment it rings. However, you do have an argument if teachers are not returning your calls. My school district tells us we should return calls within 24 hours, and that's something I try to stick too. Most parents find email easier themselves, but I understand a phone call can sometimes clarify the situation quicker.
Actually, the NHL streamed the Stanley Cup finals for free on their website this past season. I don't know if they did it during the entire playoffs, but I was very happily surprised to see at least one of the major sports getting with the modern times. I'd be more than willing to pay for a streaming sports package, but they all seem to blackout local teams, which defeats the purpose for me.
I teach CS and my students never have homework. One of the benefits of a CS class is the flipped model that allows most, if not all, of the work to be completed in class.
It's much easier to get the concept of a whole with an entire Hershey bar than with an arbitrary number of Tootsie Rolls.
This clearly indicates how out of touch your expectations of the public school system are. Even in the early 90s, I never dealt with the Bill of Rights or the Constitution as a whole in school. Not even in civics class. The only time we ever discussed it was in third grade, when we each had to remember one paragraph of the pre-amble in class and repeat it. One paragraph.. of the preamble...
Not sure what state you went to school in, but in Illinois we have a required class on government in high school where the study of the Bill of Rights and Constitution are a big part of the curriculum. We also had to pass a state test on the Constitution to pass 8th grade. It's surprising, and disappointing, to hear that isn't the norm in other parts of the country.
I graduated from a large state university 10 years ago and there was an entire course on concurrent programming. It wasn't required at the time for CS, but I believe it is now.
I can't agree with this any more. I had some similar thoughts when I was getting my CS degree, but I now consider the things I learned in college invaluable. Most online tutorials don't teach you about reliability and efficiency and it's good to have the theory you learned in college to back up the programming you'll do as a web developer.