Thanks to Jennifer Bergland (TCEA.org) for facilitating this webinar: Could this be the solution for districts that have to rely on wide area network providers that constantly have aging equipment fail, interfering with school district business and student learning? It seems every time I turn around, the wide area network provider for a local area school district has had a piece of equipment fail.Everyone howls, looking for the Technology Department to fix equipment they don't even own, control, or know what to do with. And, each time, the WAN provider drags their feet to resolve the issue.Find out moreWhat to do about this problem? Dark fiber is a privately operated, secure and dedicated way for organizations to have access to high bandwidth, while controlling their own network. Dark fiber puts you in control of your own network, allowing you to control costs by gaining the benefits of network ownership without having to construct the physical network yourself.Source: Unite Private NetworksThere are definitely benefits to private fiber, especially leased fiber. You setup a contract with a vendor, and they get to deal with all the headaches and problems. They are the ones that have to worry about "right of ways" (great podcast), and the District enjoys unlimited bandwidth on its fiber network. This really sounds like the solution to a lot of problems districts deal with when it comes to providing access to faster networks and internet at lower cost...check out this info below:This chart of five different school districts across the U.S shows some of the savings schools have experienced with municipal networks. The orange is the original provider’s exorbitant price for each Mbps per month. The blue is the price from the municipal network. The savings are stunning.Sources for the graphMuniNetworks Public Savings Fact Sheet and Breaking the Broadband Monopolyas cited online at Muninetworks.orgI recently asked a colleague:What do you see as the process of laying your own private fiber network?Here is his response...as you read it, ask yourself, what's missing? What would I add to this?Do an RFP with kind of bandwidth outlined in it. You'll want to define how many strands and locations you'll want. Dark fiber, he pointed out, is fiber you're not using. Dark fiber can be leased to others, such as small businesses. Based on the size of your fiber, you can lease out a certain amount of bandwidth.Define builds that will be part of the loops, and which are jump-overs.Idenify the type of network--loop or star topology. Vendor would provide a design based on how much redundancy is needed.eRate now pays for 80% of leased fiber costs. That's pretty awesome!And one of the biggest challenges facing schools and libraries today is the "fiber gap" — by the FCC’s own estimates, at least 35 percent of schools and 85 percent of libraries lack access to fiber infrastructure today. That’s why we’re excited the Commission adopted changes recommended by OTI and many of our allies to make it easier for schools and libraries to use E-rate support to invest in fiber. The new order also goes a step further to allow schools and libraries to construct their own networks (or portions of their own networks) if it is the most cost effective solution. This rule is designed to help schools and libraries that receive few or no bids in response to their Form 470 submissions by giving them the option to direct E-rate dollars toward direct investment when it makes financial sense to do so. Source: EdCentral's FCC's New E-rate Order Brings More Money, Better Rules to Support Fiber InvestmentFind out moreTCEA shared the following information earlier this year:New E-rate rules allow districts to do things they haven’t been able to do before. Three main points to remember are:The new rules allow school districts to lease dark fiber and receive discounts on the fiber as well as the electronics to light the dark fiber beginning in 2015-2016.Beginning in 2015-2016, in some situations, districts will be allowed to self-provision (own) the fiber if it is the most cost effective solution.Up until now, the E-rate program would only provide discounts on construction projects that costs $500,000 or less. For four years, they are suspending that cap. This is an opportunity to utilize E-rate funds for those districts whose construction costs for fiber installation exceed that amount.The E-rate program will provide up to an extra 10% discount on special construction costs for fiber installation if the state of Texas matches up to 10% of the total cost of the construction. Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

"Stop rambling!" my brain shrieks at me, jumping up and down on the sidelines as I speak into my phone, try to sound coherent in the midst of a Voxer chat. I realize, minutes later, that I have done exactly what drives me crazy--rambled on, pursuing one idea after another, never quite bringing any to completion. It's a fun strategy when writing, pursuing one thought, then another, stringing them together in a long dribble of words that fill paragraphs, pages. Aloud, you're left with silence as people wonder, "What the heck was he trying to say?"Time for brevity...as the saying goes, "Brevity is the soul of wit." This is my Voxer vow--to speak briefly, sparing with my words.An excerpt from Speak Briefly with Compassion and Warmth: "Speak briefly, speak warmly, and fill every sentence with kindness, clarity, and optimism." When I teach communication strategies to students, teachers, therapists, attorneys and corporate leaders, we practice the "10-10 Game." You face each other, raise your fists and begin speaking and counting. The slower you speak the better...Slower speaking also improves neural comprehension...eliminates anxiety and irritability....How do you do it?Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, one of the most valuable aspects of publishing student writing online is that it "provides students with ownership of when and what they publish, but also the opportunity to interact with a real, global audience." I mention this because it's important to note that errors/mistakes made are OK, a point the ELL teacher was supportive of. View Image Source Tom Romano, in his book Clearing the Way, writes about the uncorrected errors embedded in students' writing. He says the following:"I let them stand...out of respect for error and the part it plays in the process of writing. Human beings are usually messy when they create." He encourages teachers to look through--not with a red pen clutched in one hand to expertly edit, but an openness to the possibilities of-- the messiness to the essence of student’s writing.Book at AmazonAn openness to possibilities...for me, that's what writing is about and that is what most attracts young writers--the possibility to create a new space.A middle school, ELL teacher was kind enough to introduce me and ask me to share a few words. I had only planned to write with students during this sessions, so I had to fall back on stories and ideas I use to excite adult writers who may need help getting over the idea that their writing may be read by a global audience. This is essentially what I shared with the 8th grade students in Ms. L. Incardona's class at Heritage Middle School...Of course, I shared one of the most moving stories I've experienced myself, that of an older New Zealand teacher ("with lots of wrinkles and white hair" is what I said to emphasize this to the students):Have any of you ever written for someone else? [Most hadn't, with the exception of grocery lists]. When you write and publish, you connect with other people who read it, who have thoughts and ideas about what you've written. When I was in New Zealand, I met a teacher who had never published anything online [we discussed what a blog was, and two students spoke up]. She didn't feel comfortable writing about her work in school, but she had a garden that she loved to work in. So, she decided to write about that garden. She never imagined that her writing about the garden in HER backyard would be very interesting, but to her surprise, someone started leaving comments on her blog. Someone was interested! It was a university professor who had, to the teacher's astonishment,studied gardens and had noticed something. This was the beginning of a conversation. Imagine taking something that you see as ordinary, no big deal, and then sharing it with someone else who thinks it is incredible! How would that make you feel? That's why I would like to invite you to share your writing online. Would you like to do that?With that introduction aside, the teacher set the lesson in motion about writing a myth. Earlier in the week, students had been introduced to the characteristics of mythology. They had the opportunity to read examples of myths (mentor texts, a term, BTW, I hadn't heard until earlier this week..in my day, we just called them examples of writing to emulate and adapt from) and analyze their characteristics. Since I had missed that class discussion, and to set myself up as a fellow writer who was NOT an all-knowing adult expert, I asked teacher teacher for a quick review...and 8th graders jumped right in to respond. What a delight! Here are my notes:After that, the ELL teacher divided the class up into groups of 2, and I joined two 8th grade young men who had decided to work together. We brainstormed a bit as to different "Why" and "How" questions to explain. After a few minutes of that, I suggested we each write for 5 minutes to see what we came up with about our favorite idea. Of course they began immediately, and pretty soon, each had a paragraph written (so did I).What I noticed about their writing is that their writing was more "non-fiction" than a myth story. However, once I read my story (shown below), the "lightbulb" went off and they saw how they could begin the story. Of course, their own writing definitely influenced the group piece they worked on.Since we were to develop a myth story as a group, we began to discuss, combining our ideas. As they discussed the ideas, they decided to change some of the elements from each of our individual stories. Instead of too much dark (which had been one of my elements), they suggested too much sun...this resulted in the earth having TWO suns, causing too much brightness, which was later adjusted from too "bright" to "hot." Once they started "writing," I asked them if they had a computer they could write on. They asked Ms. Incardona, and she began checking out Chromebooks to the students who were ready for them. Student #1 immediately logged into GoogleDrive, created a GoogleDoc, then promptly turned the Chromebook over to Student #2, who had volunteered to type.From that point forward, the conversation was fast and furious, one student typing up what he and the other writer discussed. As they got even deeper into the story, they went back and forth about the elements of the myth they wanted to include. For example, there was discussion about the badger being the protagonist in the story (that had come from my draft). "What's the most hated animal?" I had asked them."The skunk," Student #1 replied immediately. "We could say that the skunk's spray was the most majestic and wherever it's spray fell, flowers 'sprung up.'"  At this point, the boys were lost in the story and I stepped away to listen to other groups.When I returned, I noticed that the animals had decided to take a vote and that the skunk and the zebra were the two highest. These animals were to go on a journey to find a way to repel the sun. "We don't want to destroy it," Student #1 and Student #2 confided. I was amazed at this attitude and, gratified for some reason. Simply, they wanted to find a non-harmful way to remove the 2nd Sun that was burning up the Earth. At the end, when a student who had been absent joined them (Jesus), they solicited his input for how the myth should end.The teacher was quick to point out the irony in the story between the skunk and the zebra. Why don't you read their story and see what you notice?You can read their complete story online at the EC Connect: Publishing Student Writing blog, How the Skunk Got His Bad Smell,which is a new blog for publishing student writing.Please do leave some feedback.By the way, in case you're curious about MY piece that I wrote, here is what it looks like on paper and typed:Typed version, and my 2nd draft (I had a lot of fun writing this)The Sacrificeby Miguel GuhlinIn a time long ago, when the sky lay like a dark blanket over the earth, the animals came together and cried, "Why is it so dark all the time?"The birds tweeted, "In the dark, we can't find leaves and twigs to build our nests."The dragons roared in gouts of fire, vain pride and arrogance twisting their words, "In the dark, we can't see how pretty and shiny our scales are, except when a comet flies by every 1000 years or so."The bravest of the animals, the mouse, stood up and said, "Why don't we ask the old woman who gave us life what she can do for us?" Since the mouse's wisdom and bravery were known to all, the animals agreed. But, since no good deed goes unpunished, they voted to send the Mouse to ask her, she who was known only as Lucinda, the Mother of All.The Mother of All groaned, the muscles in her back straining at the load of wood she carried in her arms. While she could have easily commanded the behemoths on land, or the leviathans of the ocean to carry her load, she valued independence above her authority. "What doesn't kill you," she liked to say, "makes you stronger." No matter the deaths of countless creatures in the dark, all yearning for light. "I'm too tired to give birth to a Sun. That will have to be someone else's job," she thought wearily.As she tramped down the dirt path to her cottage, she espied a small, stout creature. "Ah, the brave mouse seeks me out!" After inviting the Mouse in for some tea, she listened to his request."So," she began, the problem is you can't find your way around in the dark with bumping your noses, eh?"She snorted, "Silly creatures. If I'd meant for you to have sun light, I would have started with a Sun."Leaning in, her gnarled hands clasped together as if in prayer, "I can make the change to the world you need but you must give something up, Brave Mouse."The Mouse stood straight and said, "I'll do anything for my fellows." Not an ounce of fear stirred inside him."For all your life," Lucinda said, "you have been the bravest of all animals. Your courage has been a source of encouragement and a light in the darkness. Now, I am going to make it the light." The Mouse gulped."What will happen to me?" asked the Mouse."Oh nothing...except you won't be respected as the bravest anymore, and you will feel the fear others feel." With that, she held wide her hands and clapped them together. A powerful light appeared over the Mouse, and begin to rise into the sky.As the Mouse found his way back to where the animals waited, he heard a strange noise in the trees. The birds sang of danger approaching, not knowing it was Mouse for whom they waited. Mouse only heard the danger song, and felt overwhelming fear, scurrying into the bushes to hide.As Mouse continued his journey, he felt dragon-fear, the worst of all fears, and though the dragons noticed him not, he squeaked piteously until they flew past to glimpse their scales in the bright Sun.At last, Badger noticed Mouse, fearfully moving from bush to bush, always afraid. "Mouse, you have done it!" he cried. "What's wrong?" he asked when noticed Mouse's fearful glances."I'm afraid," cried Mouse.Badger said, "Come with me, dear friend, and I will show you where you can hide and live." From that day forward, the dragons and the dodo birds sang the song of Mouse's bravery and his sacrifice. And, when Mouse can stop shivering and be still in his mousehole, he can hear the echo of the song in his heart and recover his courage.Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

In 2014, Judge John Dietz ruled Texas fails to provide sufficient funding for schools to effectively serve a growing population of ELLs and low-income students. - See more English language learners...have the lowest graduation rate of all subgroups at 71.5 percent statewide. English language learners are one of the fastest-growing student groups in Texas with almost 1 million students, making up 18 percent of the school population. San Antonio was home to about 38,000 English learners in 2014-15.Read moreA snippet of content from web siteWhen I cracked open the Welcome to Computers for ESL Students , I wasn't sure what to expect. Would this be a resource that would offer watered down computer concepts and vocabulary? And, I wasn't thrilled by the cover (nice design, though) since the content referred to topics that some might deem a bit dated:Basic Computer Concepts and VocabularyMicrosoft Windows (7 and 8.1)Word Processing (WordPad & Word 2013)Internet ExplorerWebmailThen, I realized that this might be helpful for English Language Learners (ELL). In fact, I remembered many of the parents I worked with who would benefit from this book (and workbook), many of whom would have found the information quite helpful. Some of the key aspects of the book include the following:Clearly delineated learning objectivesImages that represent the target ELL populationOnline resources (I didn't link to them since you probably need to own the book)Picture dictionary for computer terms along with parts of speech and example sentences.A snippet of content from their online resourcesWhen you switch your perception of this being a book about computer terms and vocabulary to a language teaching book that happens to use computer topics as the content, you immediately grasp the genius of the text. With clear illustrations, easy to follow instructions and exercises, the book scaffolds language learning for ELL students of any age.The companion workbook provides fill in the blank activities, word banks, paired conversation scripts and much more to enable practice for ELL learners.With such rich activities and content, teachers of ELLs will want to take a serious look at books that enable language learning around a relevant subject such as computer related vocabulary and skills.Labyrinth Learning...publishes easy-to-use textbooks that empower educators to teach complex subjects quickly and effectively -- and enable students to gain confidence, develop practical skills, and compete in a demanding market.Find out more via their web site.Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Goodbye Evernote Clearly!Were you an Evernote Clearly fanatic? I can't tell you how many people I've run into that bemoaned the fact that Evernote discontinued support for Clearly on January 22:Evernote to end support for Skitch, Clearly extensions for Windows on January 22ndRead moreOf course, I immediately started looking around and stumbled on the Readable bookmarklet, which works just fine as a way to "unclutter" a web page. In fact, the bookmarklet works on Chrome and Firefox...it's a cinch to use and get going without any of that Evernote overhead (which, unfortunately, is their Achilles' heel!).To get going with Readable, just go to the web site, make a few minor customizations to the screen below (or not, since that's not a requirement for use), then drag the bookmarklet button to your browser's toolbar:Visit web site and get ReadableIf you haven't give Readable a try, you should!For example, I went from this:To this...Nifty, huh?Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Also read:School For Introverts by John SpencerTeaching Not For Introverts (Atlantic Monthly)Below, please find my notes and take-aways from Susan Cain’s work on introverts,Quiet.Calls for Action:Stop the madness! Stop the calls for groupwork! We need more privacy and autonomy.Go to the wilderness..be like Buda, have your own revelations. We can all stand to get inside our own heads a little more often.Take a good luck at what's inside your "own suitcase."MyNotes:"In a gentle way, you can shake the world." --Mahatma GandhiIf we assume that quiet and loud people have roughly the same number of good (and bad) ideas, then we should worry if the louder and more forceful people always carry the day. This would mean that an awful lot of bad ideas prevail while good ones get squashed. Yet studies in group dynamics suggest that this is exactly what happens. We perceive talkers as smarter than quiet types—even though grade-point averages and SAT and intelligence test scores reveal this perception to be inaccurate.We also see talkers as leaders. The more a person talks, the more other group members direct their attention to him, which means that he becomes increasingly powerful as a meeting goes on. It also helps to speak fast; we rate quick talkers as more capable and appealing than slow talkers.All of this would be fine if more talking were correlated with greater insight, but research suggests that there’s no such link.We tend to overestimate how outgoing leaders need to be. "Most leading in a corporation is done in small meetings and it’s done at a distance, through written and video communications," Professor Mills told me. "It’s not done in front of big groups. You have to be able to do some of that; you can’t be a leader of a corporation and walk into a room full of analysts and turn white with fear and leave. But you don’t have to do a whole lot of it. I’ve known a lot of leaders of corporations who are highly introspective and who really have to make themselves work to do the public stuff."Collins hadn’t set out to make a point about quiet leadership. When he started his research, all he wanted to know was what characteristics made a company outperform its competition. He selected eleven standout companies to research in depth. Initially he ignored the question of leadership altogether, because he wanted to avoid simplistic answers. But when he analyzed what the highest-performing companies had in common, the nature of their CEOs jumped out at him. Every single one of them was led by an unassuming man like Darwin Smith. Those who worked with these leaders tended to describe them with the following words: quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated.The lesson, says Collins, is clear. We don’t need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run.The results were striking. The introverted leaders were 20 percent more likely to follow the suggestion—and their teams had 24 percent better results than the teams of the extroverted leaders. When the followers were not proactive, though—when they simply did as the leader instructed without suggesting their own shirt-folding methods—the teams led by extroverts outperformed those led by the introverts by 22 percent.Why did these leaders’ effectiveness turn on whether their employees were passive or proactive? Grant says it makes sense that introverts are uniquely good at leading initiative-takers. Because of their inclination to listen to others and lack of interest in dominating social situations, introverts are more likely to hear and implement suggestions. Having benefited from the talents of their followers, they are then likely to motivate them to be even more proactive. Introverted leaders create a virtuous circle of proactivity, in other words. In the T-shirt-folding study, the team members reported perceiving the introverted leaders as more open and receptive to their ideas, which motivated them to work harder and to fold more shirts.Extroverts, on the other hand, can be so intent on putting their own stamp on events that they risk losing others’ good ideas along the way and allowing workers to lapse into passivity. "Often the leaders end up doing a lot of the talking," says Francesca Gino, "and not listening to any of the ideas that the followers are trying to provide." But with their natural ability to inspire, extroverted leaders are better at getting results from more passive workers.They welcome the chance to communicate digitally. The same person who would never raise his hand in a lecture hall of two hundred people might blog to two thousand, or two million, without thinking twice. The same person who finds it difficult to introduce himself to strangers might establish a presence online and then extend these relationships into the real world.As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck once observed, introversion "concentrates the mind on the tasks in hand, and prevents the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work.""New GroupThink" elevates teamwork above all else, insisting that creativity and intellectual achievement come from a gregarious place.91% of high-level managers believe that teams are the key to success."While extroverts tend to attain leadership in public domains, introverts tend to attain leadership in theoretical and aesthetic fields…hence leadership does not only apply in social situations, but also occurs in more solitary situations." Leadership Development for the Gifted and Talented.A significant majority of the earliest computer enthusiasts were introverts…it’s a truism that open source attracts introverts.Serious study alone is the strongest predictor of skill for tournament-rated chess players.In many fields, it’s only when you’re alone that you can engage in deliberate practice. When you practice deliberately, you identify the tasks or knowledge that are just out of your reach, strive to upgrade your performance, monitor your progress, and revise accordingly.Teens who are too gregarious to spend time alone often fail to cultivate their talents "because practicing music or studying math requires a solitude they dread."Excessive stimulations seems to impede learning.Kafka:You once said that you would like to sit beside me while I write. Listen, in that case I could not write at all. For writing means revealing oneself to excess; that utmost of self-revelation and surrender, in which a human being, when involved with others, would feel he was losing himself, and from which, therefore, he will always shrink as long as he is in his right mind…That is why one can never be alone enough when one writes, why there can never be enough silence around one when one writes, why even night is not night enough."The evidence from science suggests that business people must be insane to use brainstorming groups…if you have talented and motivated people, they should be encouraged to work alone when creativity or efficiency is the highest priority." (Adrian Furnham)The one exception to this is online brainstorming. Groups brainstorming electronically, when properly managed, not only do better than individuals, research shows; the larger the group, the better it performs. The same is true of academic research—professors who work together electronically, from different physical locations, tend to produce research that is more influential than those either working alone or collaborating face to face."High-reactive" (introverts) pay "alert attention" to people and things...they literally use more eye movements than others to compare choices before making a decision. It's as if they process more deeply the information they take in about the world.They also tend to think and feel deeply about what they've noticed, and to bring an extra degree of nuance to everyday experiences.Many high-reactives become writers or pick other intellectual vocations where "you're in charge: you close the door, pull down the shades, and do your work. You're protected from encountering unexpected things."High-reactive kids who enjoy good parenting, child care, and a stable home environment tend to have fewer emotional problems and more social skills than their lower-reactive peers, studies show.The ideal parent for a high-reactive child is someone who can "read your cues and respect your individuality; is warm and firm in placing demands on you without being harsh or hostile; promotes curiosity, academic achievement, delayed gratification, and self-control; is not harsh, neglectful or inconsistent."There's a host of evidence that introverts are more sensitive than extroverts to various kinds of stimulation, and that introverts and extroverts often need very different levels of stimulation to function at their best.Your sweet spot is the place where you're optimally stimulated.People who are aware of their sweet spots have the power to leave jobs that exhaust them and start new and satisfying businesses.Introverts function better than extroverts when sleep deprived.Introverts have trouble projecting artificial enthusiasm.The highly sensitive tend to be philosophical or spiritual in their orientation, rather than materialistic or hedonistic. They dislike small talk. They often describe themselves as creative or intuitive, dream vividly, feel exceptionally strong emotions, process info about their environments unusually deeply, noticing subtleties that others miss.Human extroverts have more sex partners than introverts do, but they commit more adultery and divorce more frequently."If you send an introvert into a reception or an event with a hundred other people, he will emerge with less energy than he had going in...Most people in politics draw energy from backslapping and shaking hands and all that. I draw energy from discussing ideas." Al Gore"When sensitive people are in environments that nurture their authenticity, they laugh and chitchat just as much as anyone else."Overconfidence is defined as greater confidence unmatched by greater ability.When it comes times to make group decisions, extroverts would do well to listen to introverts--especially when they see problems ahead.Introverts are constitutionally programmed to downplay reward--to kill their buzz, you might say--and scan for problems.Introverts ask themselves, "Is this what I thought would happen? Is it how it should be?" And when the situation falls short of expectations, they form associations between the moment of disappointment (losing points) and whatever was going on in their environment at the time of the disappointment. These association lets them make accurate predictions about how to react to warning signals in the future.Introverts seem to think more carefully than extroverts.Introverts sometimes outperform extroverts even on social tasks that require persistence. "It's not that I'm so smart," said Einstein, who was a consummate introvert. "It's that I stay with problems longer."Flow is an optimal state in which you feel totally engaged in an activity. In a state of flow, you're neither bored nor anxious and you don't question your own adequacy. The key to flow is to pursue an activity for its own sake, not for the rewards it brings.Flow often occurs in conditions in which people "become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself."In flow, a person could work around the clock for days on end, for no better reason than to keep on working.If you're an introvert, when you're focused on a project that you care about, you probably find that your energy is boundless.Neat proverbs:"The wind howls, but the mountain remains still." -Japanese Proverb"Those who know do not speak./Those who speak do not know. - Lao Zi, The Way of Lao ZiEven though I make no special attempt to observe the discipline of silence, living alone automatically makes me refrain from the sins of speech." - Kamo No Chomei, 12th Century Japanese recluse"I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. A thoughtless word hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. We find so many people impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much a waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth." Mahatma GandhiThere is so much more great stuff to explore in this book and I encourage you to read it cover to cover. It is an affirmation of introverts, and having been one all my life, I'm inclined to buy copies for all those who said to me, "You seem to spend a little too much time inside yourself! Come out of your shell!" or for those who wondered at my shyness.Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

MyNotes on Why Ed Tech Is Not Transforming How Teachers Teach: Public schools now provide at least one computer for every five students. They spend more than $3 billion per year on digital content. And nearly three-fourths of high school students now say they regularly use a smartphone or tablet in the classroom. The student-centered, hands-on, personalized instruction envisioned by ed-tech proponents remains the exception to the rule. Case study after case study describe a common pattern inside schools: A handful of "early adopters" embrace innovative uses of new technology, while their colleagues make incremental or no changes to what they already do. "If schools take all this technology, and use it like a textbook, or just have teachers show PowerPoint [presentations] or use drill-and-kill software, they might as well not even have it. In the digital age, the ISTE standards say, teachers should be expected, among other strategies, to "engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources. " They should also "develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. Research suggests that's more or less the standard distribution of technology use in most schools nationwide. The most authoritative national study on teacher technology use was conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2009. A survey of 3,159 teachers found that when teachers did allow students to use technology, it was most often to prepare written text (61 percent of respondents reported that their students did so "sometimes" or "often") conduct Internet research (66 percent), or learn/practice basic skills (69 percent). Far more rare were teachers who reported that their students sometimes or often used technology to conduct experiments (25 percent), create art or music (25 percent), design and produce a product (13 percent), or contribute to a blog or wiki (9 percent.) Similar findings resulted from a 2010 study of 21 Texas middle schools by private researcher Kelly S. The schools had been provided with abundant technology, including laptops for every student and teacher, wireless upgrades for schools, digital curricula and assessments, and professional development, paid for with $20 million in federal funds. "In general, teachers at many schools seemed to view technology as a more valuable tool for themselves than for their students," Ms. One big issue: Many teachers lack an understanding of how educational technology works. Researchers have found, for example, that even innovative teachers can be heavily affected by pressure to conform to more traditional instructional styles, with a teacher as the focal point for the classroom. Newer teachers inclined to use technology in their classrooms can also be deterred by experienced teachers who feel differently. And the current test-based accountability system isn't exactly supporting the transition to student-centered, technology-driven instruction, said Ms. One strategy that most researchers and experts seem to agree on: so-called "job-embedded" professional development that takes place consistently during the workday and is tied to specific classroom challenges that teachers actually face, rather than in the isolated sessions often preferred by district central offices and written into districts' contracts with their teachers. "When learning experiences are focused solely on the technology itself, with no specific connection to grade or content learning goals, teachers are unlikely to incorporate technology into their practices," concluded Ms. Ertmer and Ms. Ottenbreit-Leftwich, the researchers who wrote the 2010 paper on the factors influencing teachers' use of educational technology. "The smarter districts use those teachers to teach other teachers how to integrate tech into their lessons," Mr. Cuban said. This note was created from Liner.By Miguel Guhlin Original: http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25919801&bcid=25919801&rssid=25919791&item=http://api.edweek.org/v1/ew/?uuid=2F4A593C-0BA9-11E5-8D81-71C9B3743667 Highlighted with Liner: http://liner.link/VrNN3

MyNotes on Performance-Based Assessment: Engaging Students in Chemistry: Performance-based assessment is a way for students to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and material that they've learned. Performance-based assessment measures how well students can apply or use what they know, often in real-world situations. Performance-based assessment starts with the curriculum, instruction, or unit that you're already teaching. Since PBA requires students to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and concepts, they are usually asked to create a product or response, or to perform a specific task or set of tasks. When designing assessments, teachers ask, "What is the level of performance? Do we want short-term memory and fragmented applications from kids, or do we want comprehensive understanding of big ideas? For example, a performance task in writing would require students to produce a piece of writing rather than answering multiple-choice questions about grammar or the structure of a paragraph. Performance assessment is authentic when it mimics the work done in real-world contexts. Performance assessment taps into students' higher-order thinking skills, such as evaluating the reliability of information sources, synthesizing information to draw conclusions, or using deductive/inductive reasoning to solve a problem. Performance tasks may require students to make an argument with supporting evidence, conduct a controlled experiment, solve a complex problem, or build a model. These tasks often have more than one acceptable solution or answer, and teachers use rubrics as a key part of assessing student work. This note was created from Liner.By Miguel Guhlin Original: http://www.edutopia.org/practice/performance-based-assessment-engaging-students-chemistry Highlighted with Liner: http://liner.link/DbEvv

MyNotes on Performance-Based Assessment: Reviewing the Basics Dr. Patricia Hilliard Director of STEM Accelerator In general, a performance-based assessment measures students' ability to apply the skills and knowledge learned from a unit or units of study. Typically, the task challenges students to use their higher-order thinking skills to create a product or complete a process (Chun, 2010). Tasks can range from a simple constructed response (e.g., short answer) to a complex design proposal of a sustainable neighborhood. Arguably, the most genuine assessments require students to complete a task that closely mirrors the responsibilities of a professional, e. , artist, engineer, laboratory technician, financial analyst, or consumer advocate. First and foremost, the assessment accurately measures one or more specific course standards. Normally, students are presented with an open-ended question that may produce several different correct answers (Chun, 2010; McTighe, 2015). In the higher-level tasks, there is a sense of urgency for the product to be developed or the process to be determined, as in most real-world situations. Below is a simplified version of our planning, loosely based on the backward design process: Identify goals of the performance-based assessment. Select the appropriate course standards. Review assessments and identify learning gaps. As a result, we decided to create a performance-based assessment that was also reality-based. Moreover, this task would require students to analyze two-way frequency tables along with other charts and graphs. Design the scenario. This scenario included five key components: Setting Role Audience Time frame Product Gather or create materials. Develop a learning plan. Example: Public Comments Session Scenario Ashley, an inmate at Texahoma State Women's Correctional Institution, is serving three to five years for embezzlement and assault. After three years, this inmate is up for parole. Once a month, the Inmate Review Board offers Public Comment Sessions. The sessions are open to all interested parties who want to voice their support or opposition to an inmate's release from prison. Task You are Ashley's former probation officer, and the warden requested that you attend the Public Comment Session. You have been asked to review the following documents and present your opinion: Should Ashley be released from prison early or stay for the remainder of her sentence? You have been granted three to five minutes to speak to the review board. Your speech must be short, but detailed with strong evidence to support your decision. Documents Criminal history report Article announcing a new web series on embezzlement Blog post about prison nurseries Letter to the parole board from the inmate's mother and son Newsletter about the incarceration rates in the state Press release about a prison-work program Research brief on the recidivism rate of nonviolent offenders This note was created from Liner.By Miguel Guhlin Original: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/performance-based-assessment-reviewing-basics-patricia-hilliard Highlighted with Liner: http://liner.link/dQBA3

MyNotes: Performance assessment is one alternative to traditional methods of testing student achievement. While traditional testing requires students to answer questions correctly (often on a multiple-choice test), performance assessment requires students to demonstrate knowledge and skills, including the process by which they solve problems. Performance assessments measure skills such as the ability to integrate knowledge across disciplines, contribute to the work of a group, and develop a plan of action when confronted with a new situation. Performance assessments are also appropriate for determining if students are achieving the higher standards set by states for all students. This brochure explains features of this assessment alternative, suggests ways to evaluate it, and offers exploratory questions you might ask your child's teacher about this subject. The Office of Technology Assessment of the U. Congress described performance assessment as testing that requires a student to create an answer or a product that demonstrates his or her knowledge or skills. Group projects enabling a number of students to work together on a complex problem that requires planning, research, internal discussion, and group presentation. Essays assessing students' understanding of a subject through a written description, analysis, explanation, or summary. Experiments testing how well students understand scientific concepts and can carry out scientific processes. Demonstrations giving students opportunities to show their mastery of subject-area content and procedures. Portfolios allowing students to provide a broad portrait of their performance through files that contain collections of students' work, assembled over time. One key feature of all performance assessments is that they require students to be active participants. They also focus attention on how students arrive at their answers and require students to demonstrate the knowledge or skills needed to obtain a correct answer. To illustrate, if high school juniors are asked to demonstrate their understanding of interest rates by shopping for a used-car loan (i.e., comparing the interest rates of banks and other lending agencies and identifying the best deal), a teacher can easily see if the students understand the concept of interest, know how it is calculated, and are able to perform mathematical operations accurately. Performance assessments closely tied to this new way of teaching provide teachers with more information about the learning needs of their students and enable them to modify their methods to meet these needs. They also allow students to assess their own progress and, therefore, be more responsible for their education. When using performance assessments such as portfolios, teachers and other individuals who are grading the work may differ greatly in their evaluations. Students may be unintentionally penalized for such things as having a disability, being from a certain cultural background, or attending classes at a school with limited resources. How Can I Evaluate Performance Assessments? Does the performance assessment cover important skills and knowledge? Are the test items varied to fairly test students having different experiences, backgrounds, and motivations? Does the assessment give my child worthwhile educational experiences? Does the assessment require my child to use higher level thinking and problem-solving skills rather than simply memorizing to determine the answer? Are teachers receiving training and assistance in designing and using performance assessments? Are teachers using the results to evaluate their student's performance in their own classrooms and then tailoring instruction in areas of weakness? Or are the results being compared to those in other classrooms and schools and for evaluating the teacher or school? If assessments are going to be used as accountability measures, reliability (the degree to which a test can be depended on to produce consistent results repeatedly), and validity (the extent to which a test accurately measures the result that it is intended to measure), become critically important. How Can I Help My Child Do Well on Performance Assessments? When you talk with your child about what he or she is learning in school, ask questions that encourage problem solving or creativity. Help your child see that learning is a process and demonstrate how it is applied to real-life situations. Performance Based Assessment This note was created from Liner.By Miguel Guhlin Original: http://www.projectappleseed.org/#!assessment/cwvf Highlighted with Liner: http://liner.link/LvLv6