Educational Insanity

According to some studies, charter schools are good. According to other studies, charter schools are not so good.

There are some good charter schools. There are some bad charter schools.

On the whole, then, charter schools make no difference.

[Peer-review *THAT* fellow academicians!]

To those of you who know and learn with Alec Couros (aka @courosa),

Please consider filling out the form below.  The explanation is in the form.  I’ll send the data (or an analysis of the data) to Alec and/or his tenure committee.

Thanks in advance!

One of the earliest and largest 1:1 computing initiatives in the United States has been transpiring in the Henrico County (VA) Public Schools(HCPS) for nearly a decade.  For the last X years, every student in grades 6-12 in the county has been issued a laptop.  The program began under the leadership of Dr. Mark Edwards and continued under the stewardship Fred Morton.  A new superintendent, Dr. Pat Russo, took over the reigns of the school system this year and now the county is holding a series of parent input sessions on the “Middle School Laptop Initiative.”  Given that the program has been implemented across all of secondary education, that they’re holding parent input sessions on the “middle school” initiative suggests that there is a real possibility that the program will be cut in the middle schools.

I have been working for a number of years to help educators understand the affordances for learning of technology in education.  I am also a parent of two not-yet-school-aged children in Henrico County.  Wearing those two hats, I intend to attend the last parent input session on Thursday, November 19 and I hope to offer my input.  I have a pretty good idea of the points I’d like to make, but I’ve built up a respectably large network of educators through my blog, through Twitter and through face-to-face meetings.  So, I’m modeling the power of social learning and I’m asking you to help me frame the arguments to the HCPS board. [Or, I'm outsourcing the work; you decide ]

I’ve started a Google doc where you can help me frame the argument(s).  Please click on that link and head on over there to offer your ideas.  Thanks in advance!

This week, I am privileged to be writing over at Change.org.

Thanks to Clay Burell for granting me this opportunity.

Please join me over there for some good (and courageous) conversation.

Tomorrow, I’ll be spending the entire day with my faculty  colleagues at the VCU School of Education.  We’ll be spending the day “visioning”; a full day of strategic planning.  I believe we’ll be tackling big questions such as: who are we?  what do we do? what should we do? where should we be?

I’m constantly mulling these sorts of questions, but to aid my thinking, I ask you:

What would you like the faculty of a School of Education to explore as part of a visioning process?  What should we be considering?

Thanks in advance for your help!

photo credit: rachaelvoorhees