It's Just Confusing, Isn't IT!? -- "Curriculum War!"

Wow, this crossed my email inbox this morning in an email from Education Week:

Backers of '21st-Century Skills' Take Flak

and I'd highly recommend a careful read. It's about time that one written piece describes the debate surrounding curriculum reform and does so with balance and thought-provoking comprehensiveness. I so wish I'd been at the lively and heated panel discussion that the article outlines.

A sample from the debate, which featured "experts" (I detest that word, but
it's convention to refer to experienced players that way) on teaching and
learning:

For instance, Mr. (Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville) Willingham said, a teacher leading a whole classroom-based discussion of Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger can largely control themed discussions. A project-based setting allowing small groups to explore different ideas might give students a chance to examine a diverse, richer set of subtexts—such as the history of existentialist thought or colonization in 1930s Algeria—but it also forces teachers to make many more snap judgments about how to guide students, provide resources on topics with which they may be unfamiliar, and ensure students are on task. “There’s a reason teachers have been taught for 75 years to do projects and they don’t do them,” he said.

Do you agree with another educator at the event? “We are stuck,” Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford University, said in an interview. “We’ve been having this curriculum war for years.”

Go read. Weigh in.

David Jakes' Tech Learning Blogpost--Frustration!

For a really nice example of how blogs can spur discussion, I discovered a recent David Jakes post at the Technology and Learning blogsite. Returning there to look for it today for shareshare, I couldn't find it. I googled me man David (whom its been my pleasure to meet on a couple occasions at conferences) and found his new blog, "The Strength of Weak Ties," with the post I was looking for: "Under Construction."

In it, Jakes, a prolific proponent for Web 2.0, says, "The idea that teachers should build Web pages doesn’t work, and it’s a classic and representative example of why technology has not delivered on its potential in schools. Here are my top five reasons for this failure, and the failure of technology to alter the learning landscape…" He goes on to list and explain those five reasons, which include:

* Reason 1: Using technology to create and support learning opportunities in most
schools is not considered mission-critical.
* Reason 2: Most administrators have failed to understand technology and how it
applies to the learning process on the most fundamental level.
* Reason 3: Schools have not provided teachers with the proper tool(s),
infrastructure, or support to get the job done.
* Reason 4: Teachers are too comfortable.
* Reason 5: Teachers have not seen the benefit.

I highly recommend the read, especially for readers who are technology coordinators or curriculum experts. Most importantly, read the comments. It's an excellent example (is that redundant?) of how a blog can spur thinking and conversation amongst parties interested in the topic.

Cheerio!