Piece of the pie

Interest in K12 coding has experienced a resurgence. Some of you young folks may think you discovered coding as the way to the future, but those of us with more experience know this same trend swept through education 15-20 years ago. I know this happened and wish I better understood why that initial interest failed. This would be useful to understand.

Without disputing that there are some good jobs as programmers and most of us use technology that does rely on code, I keep asking about the priorities we have built into the curriculum. So, if you have your personal vision of the priorities of education, I keep suggesting change is not based only on  what you think is important to add. I think it responsible to also suggest what it is that you would delete or downgrade.

In my opinion, one of the more significant barriers to K12 coding has been the inability in most states to determine how coding would count toward graduation requirements. I see a chain of causation here. If you can’t count coding in a significant way toward graduation, how can you justify hiring teachers with appropriate credentials to teach programming? If coding counts in a lesser way, how can smaller districts make a commitment? If there is not a course on the secondary level, how do the limited commitments on the elementary and middle school levels make sense?

The recommendations that would establish programming have typically suggested that a programming course count as a math or science graduation requirement. I have written before about such classifications. It is often called “computer science”, but I do not really see introductory coding in this way. It does seem closer to math to me. My personal preference for changing the math requirement would substitute a course in statistics and research methods as an alternative to the final course in the existing math sequence. The scientific method as taught in most sciences does not explain the use of data as it applies to human behavior. An exploration of the strengths and weakness of other approaches to research and the interpretation through statistics of these data make more sense for the general benefit of future citizens. This is the type of critical thinking we apply daily in interpreting the various claims we encounter.

My personal perspective aside, the ACTM (the math special interest group) has just come out against counting programming to meet existing math requirements. The math folks say programming is good, but beyond prioritizing existing math courses make no suggestions for what area should receive less attention.

So, to those educators and politicians who have discovered programming and want it added, I am kind of with you. However, you seem to be pushing harder for this change than I am. I just want you to get past the easy part of suggesting something should be added. The tough part is to make the decision as to what should be deleted. Of all the possible things schools could do, where does computer science fall within the priority list. Is it before of after languages? Is it before or after physical education and arts? Is it before or after a fourth year of English? Is it before or after advanced placement or dual-enrollment courses?  If you are unwilling to offer guidance on such matters, who do you suggest should make these decisions? I could go on, but you get the idea.

Please add a comment and either post your position or link to your own analyses of school priorities. Someone among those promoting change needs to step up and fill in the details. It could be you.

 

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Cost of college

The election season has encouraged the candidates from both parties to make comments about the debt associated with college costs and to offer vague comments to address the issue. The promises in some cases have gone so far as to eliminate the cost of tuition.

The following comments are my thoughts about college costs. I will limit these comments to the college environment I know – state institutions, with a teaching, research, and service missions, including graduate work as well as a medical school. My comments focus on undergraduates attending such an institution within their own state.

I think the general public fails to recognize the sources for the cost of college and too often attributes their negative reactions to institutions providing the education. Tuition costs while the cost politicians can most easily influence make up a relatively small part of the total cost of an education. This may not be the case if you are attending a private college, a college in a different state, or a graduate program. Universities likely encourage increasing tuition costs because this is such a key part of their revenue and end up at odds with politicians as a consequence. To make up for the lack of tuition, institutions may attempt to attract more students. Of course, this puts any given institution in competition with other institutions. As is the case in most competitive markets, you spend money in an attempt to make money. Great dining hall food (in contrast to what I remember from my college days), fancy health clubs, competitive athletic programs (with free or very low ticket prices for students), etc. contribute to these costs. It is difficult not to take on some of these expenses as it seems they are so popular with students and they will consider access to such opportunities in making their choice of where to become e.

So, where does all of that money students spend go?

  • Tuition (see previous comments)
  • Books (not under the control of the institution)
  • Equipment – computers for most, specialized equipment in other situations (institutions provide some as part of tuition costs, but often this does not meet student needs or desire for convenience)
  • Food and lodging (real costs and must be competitive if run by the university)
  • Entertainment (part of tuition in a few cases, but seldom limited to this in the behavior of most students)
  • Transportation
  • Interest fees associated with loans

I wish anyone interest in college costs would consider this or a similar list and recognize who gets the money. If you want to blame someone, at least recognize who gets the money associated with your resentment.

Is education expensive? I guess this depends on what it takes to provide the experience, what proportion of the expenses are truly necessary, and what is the benefit from the experiences. Will politicians reduce the cost of education? I do not see how they will make significant differences. They may be able to influence tuition costs and perhaps the interest on student debt, but these costs are first only part of the cost of an education and second someone must cover these costs. Political relief would essentially spread these costs across the general population, but this will take a tax increase. We seem to not agree on even more basic human needs such as universal health care so I am not certain I see the public agreeing to free tuition for all.

A reminder – The return on the education investment tends to be quite significant on average so the cost incurred must be considered against this typical long-term outcome.

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Educational impatience

I have been thinking about this post for a while. It is an attempt to explain a general trend I think I see and find flawed. I call it educational impatience.

This problem is reflected is such issues as taking college credits in high school and an early  focus on occupation. I believe breadth before depth is far more practical. Yes – I said practical. If there is a trendy thing you require, I would suggest it is the “gap year”. Speeding up things that take time to develop has many negative consequences.

If you prefer to read a different interpretation with a similar conclusion, I suggest this recent post from the Washington Post.

I support of my reaction I offer two observations.

1. Students seldom have the background to make career choices when they begin college. Most students do not have enough life experience to know their particular aptitudes and passions.

A personal reflection – I started my education wanting to be a high school biology teacher and coach of some yet to be determined type. Looking back this was a product of the only world I knew. No matter how sophisticated you think your kid is this is still likely true of him/her as well.

Who goes to college to become a psychologist? I didn’t. I still remember explaining to my parents that I wanted to declare a psychology major. We made a deal. I would continue my biology major, add a psychology major, get a teaching certificate, and they would pay for summer school. I loved it. The combination ended up providing great long-term opportunities.  Who knew there were psychologists who studied the application of cognitive theory to learning and became competent computer programmers in order to investigate adaptive learning techniques? Who knew that students and college professors would have computers of their own? The computer science I could have studied was completely irrelevant and often still is.

I spent much of academic career as an administrator. As department chair, I followed the numbers and the numbers told me a lot. The number of psychology majors grew drastically from the freshman to senior year. Why? There were many factors. First, like I said few go to college to become a psychologist. Few understand the diversity of field beyond the strange understanding of what psychologists do. Most take a course or two as a requirement for many other majors and find they like the topics more than they like the topics of what they thought they wanted to study. Second, many were unrealistic about what they thought they were going to be able to do. Their preparation to the point of entering college had not offered realistic insight into their aptitude for various things. They thought they wanted to be a physician, but found they did not really like or could not handle physics, calculus, or organic chemistry.

The data are clear on one thing. More students change majors than retain their first major. Some of these changes are to a similar field, but clearly the original plan is often rejected. I still think the “freshman college” option makes a lot of sense. Take the basics and explore for a while first. The “wasted credits” some students accumulate and parents complain about because of the cost are likely the credits specific to a specific major. Maybe wasted is the wrong word – finding you are not interested in something early is a good thing.

2. Accepting stages of development

I used to teach James Marcia’s theory of ego identity (a brief Wikipedia explanation). The theory proposed two processes – crisis and commitment – that resulted in various “stages” of the development of the ego. Commitment is what is sounds like – investment in certain beliefs,  values, etc. Crisis does not sound like what it means. Crisis implied a personal, careful consideration of various beliefs, values, etc.

The four stages of ego identity resulted from various combinations of crisis and commitment. Strange as it might seem it is possible to be classified as a combination of commitment without crisis. This stage (called foreclosure) results from a tendency toward commitment without crisis. I used to explain this reality using religion (probably the only time I talked about religion in class). Some make a commitment to a specific set of religious beliefs because this is what they have always known and are told this is what is essential to accept. You might see how something similar would happen with vocation.

This theory has resulted in some interesting applied research. Using a methodology requiring students to explain their positions of multiple issues, students are classified into a stage and then other factors are related to this classification. What life factors make it more likely someone is classified in one stage vs another. What does being in a specific stage at a given point in time predict about the future. Researchers in college personnel fields (e.g., career counseling, advisement, student retention) used such methodologies to investigate student behaviors related to their fields.

In general, being foreclosed is not a good thing. It tends to be associated with self-doubt, resentment, leaving school, etc.

One interesting area of study has concerned the relationship between identity status and the reaction to life set backs (think divorce, losing a long held job, finding out you are not going to get into ned school). The popularized term “grit” might be a way to translate some of the findings. Grit might be described as weak when identity has been foreclosed. Accepting the  priorities of others rather than exploring and making personal commitments to priorities of your own is not a good thing.

Patience grasshopper.

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Collecting with Google Keep

I have long been an Evernote user and I make heavy use of Evernote in collecting and organizing information for the various forms of writing that I do. I have a Premium account which costs me $50 a year (through iTunes). This is among the most expensive annual tech commitments I make, but I use the service daily and I use many of the advanced features. Unless the company makes a drastic change I am likely to stay a loyal customer.

I am writing this tutorial on the use of Google Keep because I am a fan and I understand that many may not want or need to use a service such as Evernote. In addition, Evernote recently announced that it is reducing the capabilities of its free version and increasing the cost of the paid versions. At $70 per year, I may downgrade my own commitment to the lower cost version and adapt my typical work flow to include different tools to accomplish similar ends. I believe in paying for apps and services, but I do apply a personal cost/benefit analysis.

What follows is an explanation of how I would use Google Keep to collect and organize Internet content as part of my writing process. This description does not explore all of the capabilities of Keep and you may find personal value in other capabilities as well. Google Keep works across platforms, but does work a little differently and offers some different tools depending on the platform. What follows describes the use of the chrome extension on a desktop computer.
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If you have the Keep extension installed, you should see this icon in the top of the Chrome browser.

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Selecting the icon will store a link to whatever web page is active. You can add a descriptive title at this point.

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The content will appear within keep as a “card”.

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You can store specific content from a page (text or image) by selecting the content and then clicking on the Keep icon.

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Organization of the “cards” can be accomplished in a number of ways. Select the “edit” icon for various options.

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If I am collecting content I intend to result in a blog post, I add a label to the content.

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I use “blog” as the label for this content and the label then appears in the left side bar and on each note to which the label has been attached. Either the side bar or the embedded label can be used to retrieve the cards with the label.

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As content accumulates and I want to retain some of the content without cluttering the Keep main page, I can either archive or save content to Google docs.

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Archived content is stored within the Keep system and can be located using the label or looking through the archived content (link in left-hand side bar). Content saved to Google docs is accessed through Google docs and I use this technique for long-term organization (I add the material on a single topic to a unique folder) and long-term storage. I delete material from Keep more frequently than I delete content from Google drive.

 

 

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Are there tech activities in high school?

The following comment is based on my personal experience in following a few hundred Twitter users and bloggers. It is possible what I have observed is limited to this sample and does not reflect the broader K12 population. It is an observation you can check against your own personal experiences.

Why is it educators and tech support personnel make so little online mention of technology applications in high school? It is possible high teachers or those who work with these teachers are modest and see no reason to share the activities of their students. With the exception of a few teachers who describe or support personnel who endorse flipping the classroom, one might think there is nothing going on.

There are so many interesting possibilities for older students. I would think science teachers would make heavy use of data collection (digital probes) and analysis (simple spreadsheet based statistics and graphical representation). How about GIS and GPS activities?  Writing activities of all types work at any grade level and older students should be capable of journalistic efforts at a level capable of informing and influencing the general public. Students should be eligible for course-length computer science experiences with some creating impressive products demonstrating what older students can accomplish. Online access to primary source content should be a boon for the multiple history courses students take and place-based historical inquiry could allow a contribution to the resources that are available.

I am not discounting the instructional opportunities technology makes available, but I would think all of the pro making, project-based, problem-based, and computational thinking proponents would be showcasing what is happening in high school classrooms. 

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