Since one of my daughters attends the University of Virginia, I get to go to Virginia every once in a great while. You may not know this, but Thomas Jefferson is pretty big around there. (This is kind of like saying that Henry Ford is “kind of big” in Dearborn, MI). Things tend to follow a tradition at UVA. That is, things tend to be done the way Thomas Jefferson wanted them done. One of those traditions is that students are referred to by their year in school. Thus, students are a “first year”, “second year”, “third year”, instead of a freshman, sophomore, junior, etc.

I love traditions. Especially when there isn’t a clear, single “right” way to do something. (There are some things that are done in the name of “tradition” that are just wrong and shouldn’t be done. That would be a different topic than this though). Referring to students by year is a terrific tradition. Any “outsider” can easily understand the system, it clearly connotes a status. It allows for some level of being an insider, if someone ask you if your daughter is a “senior”, you know that they are an “outsider”, without being so obtuse that someone can’t quickly pick it up.

On my latest trip, I was thinking about how Thomas Jefferson would react to today’s society. My family woke up in Dearborn, MI one day and was in Charlottesville, Virginia in time for dinner. Given that in 1800, it would take about two weeks to make it from New York to Illinois, I’m pretty sure that Thomas Jefferson would marvel at how quickly and easily we travel. We were able to visit my daughter over the course of less than a week. Two days were spent traveling. Well, actually, less than two days. We spent part of the travel day to Virginia visiting with my daughter. We spent part of the travel day returning to Michigan to “catch up” from traveling.

Beyond physical travel, I wonder how Thomas Jefferson would react to the virtual travel that we undertake. We video conference with my daughter regularly. We get to see her face, see her emotions, her body language, hear the tone of voice, etc. Through the magic of FaceTime, or Google Hangouts, it is almost like being there with her. How would Thomas Jefferson have used these tools? How different would the founding of America have been with remote tools and remote travel so readily available?

When I was growing up, most of our heroes were athletes. I guess that is still the case. Of course entertainers are and have been “heroes” as well. Somewhere along the line, it became at least OK to be a Geek. (By the way, there is still an important distinction between a Nerd and a Geek. There is much debate over the differences and what those differences mean).

• Using Twitter to determine if you are a nerd or a geek
• Mathematical Equation
• How to Tell the Difference
• 9 Steps to tell the difference

Recently, there have been a couple of news items that relate to heroes. Tim Cook recently publicly acknowledged that he is gay. Bill Cosby has been facing accusations of rape. I think that both are significant.

Tim Cook is the CEO of Apple, Inc. Apple has become one of the darlings of popular culture. Apple is “cool”. The leader of Apple thus has some sway in popular culture. Apple recently bought Beats and brought in Dr. Dre to the company. Lots of kids use Apple products. Even more aspire to use them. Thus, Apple has a strong hold in mind share. Tim Cook has long been a private individual. He still is. He does point out in the article “Tim Cook Speaks Up”, that he doesn’t “seek to draw attention” to himself. Being the CEO of Apple makes that a very difficult task. At the same time, he also believes that he has benefitted from others who have blazed trails. Tim Cook publicly acknowledging that he is gay could very well help many kids who are dealing with that very discovery. It must make it easier to know that there is a man who happens to be gay who is running the most profitable and “coolest” company around. For an isolated teenager, this could be a piece of the puzzle that gives them hope. Mr. Cook adds some things in the article that I also think are important. He mentions for instance that he considers “being gay among the greatest gifts God has given” him. Many teenagers who are struggling with identification will be berated with their thoughts, feelings and considerations being “against God”. Hearing that it is the greatest gift that God has given Mr. Cook provides a counter argument. This is not to say that Mr. Cook’s letter will sway the entire world or America to being open-minded. It doesn’t mean that no teenagers will struggle with these decisions. However, it is another small step forward, another piece of evidence that we as a society are moving forward. When the CEO of the largest company in America, one dependent upon image and sales, can come out and say I’m gay, that is progress.

On the other hand, Bill Cosby is facing many allegations of rape. Bill Cosby was a hero to many. He had a great stand up comedy career. This was followed by a TV presence that was historical. Bill Cosby became just about everyone’s “Dad”. At least, he became the image of what a Dad could and should be. The Cosby Show transcended race. Although focused on an African American family, the show was watched and loved by all. It wasn’t an “African American” show, it was a show.

I was a Bill Cosby fan from early on. I still remember watching “Bill Cosby – Himself” on cable while getting ready to go to work. I was trying to eat dinner. Trying being the operative word. I had to give up and turn off the TV so that I could finish dinner and get to work. The Cosby Show was always entertaining too.

Bill Cosby was smart, funny and seem to have it all together. He seemed like a terrific role model. He seemed like a terrific role model for everyone. However, given that he is an African American, he filled an important role of demonstrating to African American males that there was a path to greatness. And that path was to do the right thing.

Now more than 20 women have come forward to say that they were drugged and sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby. While it is true that Mr. Cosby has not been found guilty in court, public opinion has found him guilty at this point. There is simply no way that Bill Cosby can be held up as a hero. Whether or not he is found guilty by a court, there is an indelible stain on The Cosby Show and his position as a role model.

Hero is a word that is frequently overused. Way over used. So maybe the correct terminology would be role model. Mr. Cook’s public letter is a shining light of hope. I can respect someone who says that they want to keep a private life. That they haven’t made a secret of their life, but that they would rather keep the focus on their job. Yet, Mr. Cook has acknowledged that he has benefitted from others and he hopes that others may benefit from his writing (though he still hopes to keep as much privacy as possible). Bill Cosby has gone in the other direction. He has gone from beloved to despised. From a role model to a monster.

Given some of the other stories in the news, especially those focusing on police brutality of African Americans, we could all use some more role models. Role models who are also African American would be especially important. Where is the Dr. Martin Luther King of this generation? We could certainly use one now.

I’ve been working with a great group that is doing some really nice work with Moodle. My part of the process has been twofold:

• working with the writers of the curriculum to identify how to use Moodle effectively and
• working to help the teachers who will implement the curriculum become comfortable and adept at using Moodle.

There are some really talented individuals involved in the process. So when I received the email below, it felt really good.

I just want to tell you both how impressed I am with your work! I just went through the course and as I had questions, they magically were answered by the next text section. It is a very, very professional piece of work and something that you can take great pride in.

All too often, I fail to truly thank those who do terrific work. Receiving that email really made me feel good. It also reminded me to be more thankful of those I have the pleasure of working with.

I found this article, Mute the Messenger, through my RSS feed this week. I found the article fascinating. Essentially, it is the tale of standardized testing and what could potentially be the ugly reality of assessment. It is not the shortest of articles, but a great read.

Now, take the article with a bit of skepticism. Still, it is a very powerful article. Yes, many of the points may be simply circumstantial. Yes, there could be a lot of information that is missing. Still.

Let’s take a look at a few of the quotes.

Testing advocates believed that more rigorous curricula and tests would boost student achievement—the “rising tide lifts all boats” theory. But that’s not how it worked out.

This is one of the powerful quotations for me. There is a fundamental belief that making the curriculum and assessments more rigorous would “obviously” led to more learning. Funny thing about learning though, sometimes it is more complex than people want to think.

Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott, long an advocate of using tests to hold schools accountable, broke from orthodoxy when he called the STAAR test a “perversion of its original intent.”

Yep. Some are starting to realize that just increasing testing isn’t the panacea that some want to think that it is.

Stroup sat down at the witness table and offered the scientific basis behind the widely held suspicion that what the tests measured was not what students have learned but how well students take tests.

…his testimony to the committee broke through the usual assumption that equated standardized testing with high standards. He reframed the debate over accountability by questioning whether the tests were the right tool for the job. The question wasn’t whether to test or not to test, but whether the tests measured what we thought they did.

This points out a profound function of testing that all too many take for granted. What does testing really measure? Yes, we end up with a number at the end of testing. However, what does that number really mean? What do tests really measure? These are crucial important questions.

Stroup argued that the tests were working exactly as designed

Stroup had caught the government using a bathroom scale to measure a student’s height.

The scale wasn’t broken or badly made. The scale was working exactly as designed. It was just the wrong tool for the job. The tests, Stroup said, simply couldn’t measure how much students learned in school.

Here is the crux of the matter. Are we really using the right tools? Are we using assessments correctly? Are we sure that the assessments measure what we think that they measure? I remember times as a principal where the number one question was “what was the topic of the writing” section. Once we knew what the topic was, we were pretty sure (and always right on) about how the students would do on the assessment. Quite frankly, we knew that the topic was really, really important. We knew how well the students could write. Even more importantly, we knew that if the topic was something that the students weren’t interested in, they would not do well on the assessment.

Well, one of the legislators called for Stroup and Pearson to have a debate. That debate would never happen.

…standardized tests have become the pre-eminent yardstick of classroom learning in America, and Pearson is selling the most yardsticks.

Pearson is heavily invested (literally) in assessment. Quite frankly, they are selling the yardsticks.

But, here’s one of the interesting things. Stroup was also teaching kids. He had developed a program that helped students learn math. He knew that the kids were being successful, but that success wasn’t showing up on the statewide standardized tests. He started looking at why.

Stroup knew from his experience teaching impoverished students in inner-city Boston, Mexico City and North Texas that students could improve their mastery of a subject by more than 15 percent in a school year, but the tests couldn’t measure that change. Stroup came to believe that the biggest portion of the test scores that hardly changed—that 72 percent—simply measured test-taking ability. For almost $100 million a year, Texas taxpayers were sold these tests as a gauge of whether schools are doing a good job. Lawmakers were using the wrong tool.

So, he does the research and finds out that what the tests really measure is how well students take the test. His research found that 70% of the test score was “insensitive to instruction”. Essentially, this means that teachers, schools and educators can’t change about 70% of the test results. Pearson called foul. They stated that he had made a mistake. According to Pearson, only 50% of the test is “insensitive to instruction”. That’s right. Pearson admitted that about half of the score that would determine how well teachers were teaching was unchangeable by the teacher. Honestly, teachers are being evaluated by these scores. Jobs, reputations, etc. – all determined by these tests. Yet, here is Pearson admitting that 50% of that score is determined by the student’s ability to take a test. Nothing the teacher or school could do would effect this part of the score.

Stroup concluded that the tests were 72 percent “insensitive to instruction,” a graduate- school way of saying that the tests don’t measure what students learn in the classroom.

After correcting what Pearson interpreted as the mislabeled column, Way wrote, the tests were “only 50 percent” insensitive to instruction.

“teachers account for about 1% to 14% of the variability in test scores,” largely confirming Stroup’s apparently controversial conclusion.

If it’s true that the test measured primarily students’ ability to take a test, then, Stroup reasoned to the House Public Education Committee in June 2012, “it is rational game theory strategy to target the 72 percent.” That means more Pearson worksheets and fewer field trips, more multiple-choice literary analysis and fewer book reports, and weeks devoted to practice tests and less classroom time devoted to learning new things. In other words, logic explained exactly what was going on in Texas’ public schools.

Oh, and the legislator who had called for a debate between Dr. Stroup and Pearson. The debate that never happened. Well, he retired. He is now a lobbyist for Pearson.

Source: http://www.texasobserver.org/walter-stroup-standardized-testing-pearson/

The original concept of the web was to connect documents. Obviously, the web has grown and expanded. Now, there are many, many different places to put “your documents”. Now your “documents” are no frequently longer web pages or documents that you write, but rather things that you post on other’s web sites.

Personal Examples

Lots of people now post their “documents” to places like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, InstaGram, Tumblr, etc. These sites all make it really easy to post information. They all vary in how easy it is to get your data out of their system. They also control where your data lives. Generally, the trade off is the ease of use to post (and network effect of those there) in exchange for your data living in their ecosystem.

Professional Examples

Similar to the personal examples above, there are many professional examples as well. Many people are using some the of the sites above in a professional manner. There are also sites like BlackBoard, Edmodo, Haiku and more. These sites vary from some free access to some very expensive options. Beyond the cost (because usually the cost is born by the school district, not the individual teacher) is the idea of who owns the data. Here the data is the very hard work that a teacher has put into developing that site. Getting that data out can be difficult.

Why does this matter?

I know a teacher who recently switched districts. This is a technology proficient teacher who had created a wide range of classes, activities, resources, etc digitally. However, the district that this teacher was in, had contracted their LMS out. That means that the teacher could not take her data with her. She had some terrific lessons that she had spent time developing and could really use now. However, her data is locked up somewhere else. She can no longer get to it.

There is also a movement called the IndieWeb. The basic concept is that you write a text post, post a picture, post video or some other type of data and then it is connected to whichever other destinations that you want it posted. For example, you could take a picture and post that picture to Instagram, Facebook. This means that even if one of those sites goes away, you still have your picture. Think about how many pictures exist on Facebook only. Maybe that’s fine. But it should be a choice. Here the idea is that you own the data, you post the original and “copies” are distributed around to other sites.

Now the same thing really can be done right now. One can set up a web site, purchase a domain name, install a couple of plug-ins and away you go. This is what I’ve chosen to do via this site. However, it does take some work. Not everyone is going to do that.

It is far easier to sign up for a service like any of those above. Next, hope that there are people there (and especially the right people). Be thoughtful though.

Professionally

This is why I’ve started and use this site. This is one reason that I’m a big believer in Moodle. With this site, I’ve also installed Moodle. I own the data. I can use it however that I want. I’m not dependent upon others. That also means that I need to maintain the site. *It’s really not that hard to maintain.

No matter what you choose, at least make the choice thoughtfully. Do you want to own the data? Do you care if the data goes away? Just how important is the data?

Cheers.