Apple's seismically stunning announcement on Thursday might finally disrupt education with the same quiet power that Wikipedia disrupted knowledge ownership. Three free apps that might shake the education environment: iTunes U, iBook2, and iBook Author.

 

iTune U from The Verge: "Even if you aren't a full-time student, there's educational content to peruse; Apple has teamed up with some of the world's top universities (Duke, Harvard, etc.) to offer course materials to the non-full-time students of the world (that includes lecture videos, etc.). Additionally, while iTunes U used to just be available for university students and professors, Apple is now making it accessible to K through 12 teachers and students."

 

iBooks 2 from Huffington Post: "An updated version of the original Apple e-book app announced about two years ago -- is a free application that will not only allow users to highlight text, look up words and make flashcards, but also view images, videos and 3D models inside interactive publications."

And last but maybe most promising to upset the typical way info reaches students: iBook Author from Mashable: "Designed to be used with the iPad and published in the iBookstore. Using an iPad, users can transfer a Proof of a book to their device to view inside iBooks 2. After the user is satisfied with the proof, the book can be published using iTunes Producer directly into the iBookstore. Users can also export PDF copies of the book if they want to distribute something in a more traditional way (or need non-interactive galleys)."

Won't the more rigorous Common Core State Standards initially cause more schools to fail? Nina Mandell's article "Study: Nearly half of U.S public schools failing No Child Left Behind standards,"  in the New York Daily News today reported that the Center on Education Policy found that 48% of U.S. schools did not make adequate yearly progress. "'Whether it's 50%, 80% or 100% being incorrectly labeled as failing, one thing is clear: No Child Left Behind is broken', Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. 'That's why we're moving forward with giving states flexibility from the law in exchange for reforms that protect children and drive student success'." New standards may be a starting place, but change has to happen in the classroom not in the rhetoric.

I was diligently perusing the news for articles about education (politicized, negative, cynical) or education technology (Does it work? Really? We're still asking that?). And then I stumbled on this blog entry by Gary Duke on the Richland College's Teaching and Learning blog: Embracing Whimsy, Part I. Here's an excerpt to tantalize you:

 

"I asked him what he meant by whimsy, and he struggled to define it. He said it’s that nagging idea that life could be magical; it could be special if we were only willing to take a few risks. We spent nearly eight hours with the Goff family. They didn’t want us to go, and we didn’t want to go either. But around midnight we realized we still had to paddle several hours in order to make it to our campsite on the other side of the inlet, so we gathered our things on the dock.

I thanked Bob for the food and the towels and especially for the stories. I asked him if I could get in touch with him. He said he’d love it and gave me his e-mail address. I put my gear in the kayak, and Bob kneeled down on the wet dock and held it close as I lowered myself into the boat. I told him thanks and that I was sorry he got his knees wet. He looked at me and smiled and said it was nothing; just wait.

I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but as we pushed off the dock and the other guys got into their boats and pressed off, we back-paddled into the dark of the inlet, waving at the Goffs as they waved back at us. And then to our amazement, we saw all of them, fully dressed with shoes and jackets, take three steps together and jump into the water, coming up and waving and shouting their good-byes."

 

On Monday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced that President Obama would issue an executive order to override the NCLB requirement that 100% of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Sam Dillon in his article in Monday's New York Times wrote: "The administration’s plan amounts to the most sweeping use of executive authority to rewrite federal education law since Washington expanded its involvement in education in the 1960s."

 

The timing and impact of the changes are a little puzzling. And nobody really knows how the administration will determine if states are making strides. An article in Tuesday's Ed Week by Sarah Sparks covers a study by The Center on Education Policy that "suggests that students who participate in the law’s largest education program, the Title I program for disadvantaged students, are making strides in mathematics and reading."

 

In an interview between Gwen Ifill and Justin Snider, Ifill asks Snider how states will get waivers. He responds: "Whether the state has adopted standards that make it look like students will graduate from high school college- and career-ready; and, two, whether states are doing anything to evaluate their teachers' effectiveness; and, three, whether they're trying to turn around failing schools; and, four, whether they're doing anything -- or whether they have any plans to implement new accountability provisions." If education budgets reflect the significance we assign to education, then the executive order may be a lot of "sound and fury signifying nothing."

Severe cuts to state and national education budgets, political wars that position teachers as scapegoats, and achievement gaps that haven't moved in decades. And then Indiana decides to eliminate cursive from the school curriculum. Witness the furor.

Check out Edward Tenner's "How Handwriting Builds Character" in The Atlantic. "States and school districts thinking of eliminating handwriting teaching -- cursive or italic -- should at least make it possible for a minority of motivated teachers and students to learn the skill, and track the results. I'll bet that as Dr. Daniels believes, it can be a key to a healthier approach to education and life."

Tenner's article refers to an earlier piece of nostalgia in the WSJ by Theodore Dalrymple (Anthony Daniels), "The Handwriting is on the Wall." Dalrymple writes: "Indeed, my first reaction to the news from Indiana was visceral despair, not only because the world I had known was now declared antediluvian, dead and buried, but because it presaged a further hollowing out of the human personality, a further colonization of the human mind by the virtual at the expense of the real."

Tom Henderson in an article in ParentDish further chides: "Besides, as a form of communication, cursive is about as dead as Latin -- or talking to people face-to-face."

Oh, please, guys. Get a grip. (And I'm not just saying this because Sister John Birchmans said my handwriting was so bad that I'd never find a husband.) (She was wrong; several times over.)

 

 

 

 

Check out Ed Week's "Why Core Standards Must Embrace Media Literacy." The article cites examples of a few core standards to illustrate how they don't focus on media literacy. "For example, one of the reading standards for grades 6-12 says students should be able to: 'synthesize and apply information presented in diverse ways (e.g., through words, images, graphs, and video) in print and digital sources in order to answer questions, solve problems, or compare modes of presentation'." Forget for a minute that the core standards are, to be kind, dense and almost impenetrable. While we fiddle around with political arguments on whether we're teaching "reading" or "media literacy," digital media continues to transform the world with our without common core standards and with our without U.S. students. Yesterday's international papers carried stories about OECD's test of media literacy : "Korea tops a new OECD PISA survey that tests how 15-year olds use computers and the Internet to learn. The next best performers were New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Hong-Kong China and Iceland."