Happy Holidays to Educator of the Year

For my last post of 2009, I wanted to leave readers with a positive message. The following article if from the Lexington Minutemen.

In honor of exemplary leadership in promoting and advancing science education for students and teachers, Lexington resident Kathleen Vandiver received the 2009 Science Educator of the Year award for Middlesex County.

The award, presented by the Massachusetts Association of Science Teachers (MAST) in October, cited her work as developer of the LEGO Life Sciences kits.

Using the kits and associated curriculum, teachers lead their middle school and high school classes through carefully designed lessons about basic chemistry and properties of matter, DNA, cellular biology and genetics concepts.

Vandiver, a former sixth grade science teacher at Diamond Middle School, developed an introductory chemistry curriculum to insure that her students grasped crucial concepts such as the difference between atoms, molecules and elements. As they manipulate LEGO bricks, students vividly see how substances can recombine in different ways and form compounds with new properties.

Happy holidays to all!

Sub Prime Effecting College Students

Yesterday's blog was about how disinterested many U.S. college students are in actually studying while at college. In today's Inside Higher Ed, Jackson Toby offers an even more sobering dilemma regarding sub prime loans to those who might actually want an education, but can't afford it.

An unintended consequence of making access to college an entitlement readily available to all high school graduates is that serious study in high school has become optional, even for those intending to go to college. Without an incentive to study diligently, many students are disengaged in high school and, as a result, unprepared for college. Some freshmen arrive at college thinking that having fun is the main reason they are at college and that the pursuit of knowledge should be available for when they have nothing better to do.

Federal grant programs supplemented by state and private grant programs, were never able to cover the financial needs of the millions of college students whose families could not afford the rising costs of attending college. So Congress established several loan programs, some indirect loans whose federal subsidies made attractive to banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions, and some financed directly by the Department of Education. Unlike Pell Grants and other federal grant programs for college students such as work-study programs for needy college students, which do not have to be repaid, loans must be repaid with interest after graduating from or leaving college.

Read the full article

Today's Inside Higher Ed notes an op-ed piece in the The Boston Globe, "My Lazy American Students," is attracting considerable online debate. The piece -- by Kara Miller, who teaches history and rhetoric at Babson College -- compares her American and foreign students. "My 'C,' 'D,' and 'F' students this semester are almost exclusively American, while my students from India, China, and Latin America have -- despite language barriers -- generally written solid papers, excelled on exams, and become valuable class participants," writes Miller. She compares the way her foreign students listen to everything she says, while "[t]oo many 18-year-old Americans, meanwhile, text one another under their desks (certain they are sly enough to go unnoticed), check e-mail, decline to take notes, and appear tired and disengaged." Reader reactions vary widely. Some credit Miller with drawing attention to a real problem. Others say she doesn't understand higher education. Wrote one commenter: "Sorry, teach, but our American kids know that college is for boozing, drugs and hooking up. They'll start working hard when it matters -- the day they get their first job."

Sad, but I have a feeling the comment is so true. It makes one wonder if the U.S. workforce will ever be able to compete on a global basis.

Parents Start to Mobilize Against Tuition Costs

The large tuition increases have led to many student protests, but now parents are mobilizing as well, the Los Angeles Times reported. Rallies and other efforts have taken place and are being organized to reach lawmakers. While university officials tend to say that they have added financial aid to help those unable to pay the added costs, many families don't feel that the additional aid is enough or will reach them.

Is There Gender Bias in College Admissions?

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has selected 19 colleges and universities for its controversial probe of whether colleges are favoring male applicants in admissions decisions, and whether any such preference is appropriate. The commission, seeking to minimize costs, selected colleges close to Washington, but included a range of four-year institutions, including public and private, historically black and predominantly white, religious and secular, and institutions of varying degrees of admissions competitiveness. While commission members say that they are just investigating a relevant issue, some advocates for female athletes view the effort as a way to raise questions about Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

The colleges and the characteristics cited by the commission in selecting them are as follows:

Historically black colleges: Howard University, Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Virginia Union University.
Religious colleges: Catholic University of America, Loyola College in Maryland and Messiah College.
Highly selective private institutions: Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University and Gettysburg College.
Very selective private institution: University of Richmond.
Moderately selective private institutions: Goucher College, Goldey-Beacom College, Washington College and York College of Pennsylvania.
Moderately selective public institutions: Shepherd University, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, University of Delaware and University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

Women in Science

The December 16, MAMA PhD blog by Dana Campbell outlines two distinct measures proving women can be in science and have a family.

Campbell talks about the University of Maryland proposing a measure allowing faculty to reduce their workloads by 50% while they are raising children under the age of five. At the same time, Campbell notes that the 2009 Nobel prize for medicine was awarded to two women, Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider, both with families.

My favorite is the quote from Elizabeth Blackburn, "I'm not talking about doing second-rate quality science, far from it. You can do really good research when you are doing it part-time."

Read the full blog

Teacher Prep Programs Get a Big Dollar Boost

Campus Technology reported on the University of Minnesota being granted $4.5M for teacher preparation programs by the Bush Foundation.

Dubbed the Teachers Education Redesign Initiative, will focus on preparing prospective educators to increase graduation rates and reduce disparities in student achievement for k-12 schools.

"Ensuring that our schools have the best teachers in the country is critical to meeting the region's employment needs going forward," said University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks in a prepared statement. "In order to be competitive in the global economy, all students need to graduate from high school prepared for some form of post-secondary education. I am very excited that the University of Minnesota will play a strong role in revamping the teacher education curriculum to improve teaching and learning--for all students--throughout the state and region."

Making Science Education Fun...Especially for Girls

Dr. Sally Ride, the first women in space, is now on another mission...making science education fun, especially for young girls.

The BBC News report says Dr. Sally Ride' particular focus is to get more girls to stick with science and pursue it as a career.

The National Science Foundation said women represent 46% of the workforce but only hold 25% of the jobs in science, engineering and technology. "I want to right this wrong and have made this the focus of my life at this stage," Dr Ride told BBC News.

"Females are 50% of the population and we cannot afford not to tap into that group of people to the fullest extent possible. "In this country we don't put the priority on math and science education and it's incredible because our society depends on it so much. We are not raising the next generation of scientists and engineers," said Dr Ride.

Sony Readers to Replace Textbook at Toronto School

Blyth Academy in Toronto is replacing textbooks with Sony Readers for 170 students. A Publishers Weekly report says the school will keep its library of printed books and the students will still read fiction in the printed versions. “We’re not doing away with printed text altogether because novels are so beloved, and people love to have their novels in a printed version,” said director or development Brandon Kerstens.

Electronic versions will be up-to-date, lighter for students to carry, and “it will cut down on the cost because obviously you aren’t paying for the pages, just the content itself. It’s really great,” stated Kerstens. The environmental aspect of using less paper was also viewed as an advantage.

Many of the electronic textbooks the Blyth Academy will be using come from Pearson Canada and McGraw-Hill Ryerson, which Kerstens said had advanced beyond basic text to be more interactive offering links and possibility to highlight and bookmark.

Give the Gift That Really Will Keep on Giving

At this time of year, many of thinking of charitable giving. Most of us review the obvious places; homeless shelters and food kitchens, all worthy of course. This year though, I'm thinking a bit outside the box. I have an idea that I hope catches on like it has with a small town charity the Clarkston Education Foundation.

Clarkston is a small town in eastern Washington state, with one public high school, a middle school, and four elementary schools. In the 2000 census (the most recent nationwide demographic data for Clarkston), the town had just over 7K people (although its school system serves communities outside the city limits, so the effective population is larger than that.) 15.5% of families within Clarkston live below the poverty line (almost twice the nationwide average). Only 13.1% of Clarkston's population over 25 has a college degree - compared with 25% nationwide (or 65% in Cambridge, MA).

CEF was created when some local graduates got together to try to improve the educational odds for Clarkston's kids. They started out by providing a scholarship to a high school senior, and they now provide several scholarships each year.

There are thousands of inquisitive, curious, excited kids out there right now, in towns you and I have never heard of, who have what it takes to earn BAs and BSs and PhDs and MDs - they just need some help getting started.

As we enter the season of giving, take a look around your neighborhood and find out if there are similar educational programs for contribution. Your participation doesn't have to be financial. Perhaps you can be a mentor or teachers assistant.

Your gift to education, however it is made, will definitely be the gift that keeps on giving for generations to come.

Going the Distance -- Teaching Online

Today's article from Inside Higher Ed concentrates on the Calumet's Distance Education Mentoring Project.

Researchers at Purdue University at Calumet believe that learning how to do distance education properly can make professors better at designing and administering their classroom-based courses.

“Most of the professors who teach at the university level have had no experience with pedagogy or instruction in general,” says Janet Buckenmeyer, chair of the instructional technology master’s program at Calumet. “They’re content experts, not teaching experts.”

When teaching online, she says, “You have to pay more attention to the navigation of the course, the clarity of the course, the objectives of the course, the reason why you’re assigning activities and assessments, [and make] certain everything is perfectly clear to the students. In a face-to-face situation, you can get by with just coming in and not having prepared and winging a class session. You can’t do that online.”

That was the thesis behind the creation of Calumet’s Distance Education Mentoring Project. The project takes faculty who are looking to adapt their classroom courses to the online environment and teams them up with Web-savvy colleagues. Those mentors advise the novices on best practices for online course design and oversee them through the first semester of the online version of the course. (An article detailing the project, authored by Buckenmeyer and two colleagues, is scheduled to appear in the January issue of the International Journal of E-Learning.)

Discovery Communications Launches "Be the Future"

T.H.E. Journal recently ran an article by Scott Aronowitz touting Discovery Communications new initiative "Be the Future" in response to President Obama's call to education action.

Science education promises to be critical to American competitiveness on the world stage in the 21st century, and President Barack Obama recently delivered a call to action to promote science literacy and to encourage student interest in the sciences and technology. Discovery Communications, in keeping with its commitment as a leader in science-related programming and education, has announced a long-term initiative known as "Be the Future."

The "Be the Future" Initiative will rely on two Discovery properties, Science Channel, a cable television network dedicated entirely to exposing viewers to the wonders of science and nature, and Discovery Education. The company will also partner with satellite TV giant DirecTV and Siemens, a standard bearer in technology research, development, and manufacturing, to bring all planned components of the multimedia initiative to fruition.

MassPRIG Pushes for Funding Protection

There have been several reports regarding student's leaving university not only with a degree but with debt as well.

In today's www.metro.us, an article by Tony Lee states the Massachusetts's Public Interest Research Group (MassPRIG) has taken steps to do something about it.

More than 60 percent of Massachusetts graduates had student debt last year -- with an average of over $23,000 owed -- and many of them are locked into high-interest private loans.

Students in the Bay State are graduating with an average of $5,008 in non federal student loans that can carry interest rates of over 18 percent. Paying off such growing debts amid a poor job economy has left several students in dire straits.

The MassPRIG report comes amid a push for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which would provide federal oversight to the industry and curb private lenders who make loans to students with no supervision.

An oversight agency might help, but unless there is a commitment from higher education institutions to communicate to their students regarding funding and loan protection, we may not see a decrease in loan profiteering by lenders.