The Case for Wikipedia

As I was skimming through Google Reader for classroom blogs recently, I noticed one with this assignment.
Geography Power Point:
Please feel free to use any source except Wikipedia for this project. Wikipedia is not the most reliable source and for this reason the middle and high school are not allowed to use this in their research.

Of course being a 21st century educator, this immediately caught my eye for two reasons. Power Point? Not the most creative tool but I halfway understand the rationale. I always recommend allowing the students to choose their own way of creating presentations. Why restrict the presentation to Power Point when there are a multitude of options available?The Wikipedia reference really made me wonder if 21st century education is really understood here? Are other encyclopedias banned too?My stance on Wikipedia is it's a great first resource for a student or teacher with very little information on a topic. Wikipedia shouldn't be used as the only resource but it is helpful for first searches. Of course teaching our students to find information is only part of our mission. Teaching them to validate, leverage and problem solve with the information is of more importance. If nothing else, they can utilize the info from Wikipedia and attempt to validate the info with other sources.
According to Wikipedia:
" it is the ideal place to start research and get a global picture of a topic, however, it is not an authoritative source. In fact, we recommend that students check the facts they find in Wikipedia against other sources. Additionally, it is generally good research practice to cite an original source when writing a paper, or completing an exam. It's usually not advisable, particularly at the university level, to cite an encyclopedia."
Wikipedia is more than a decade old. Currently Wikipedia is focusing more on quality than growth as most contributors are lovers of knowledge who have a real desire to improve the quality of the entry.The main issue for me is students face an abundance of information already and our main emphasis should be to guide them through this sea and teach them critical thinking skills such as evaluation and analysis.Banning and filtering didn't work years ago with You Tube, blogs or other 21st century tools, banning Wikipedia is missing the point. Of course that's my opinion and it's debatable but it is the 21st century and has been for over a decade and that point is indisputable.
Check out this info graphic on Wikipedia

Via: Open-Site.org

New resources

Here are some great resources for engaging your students!

Learn chemistry complete with interactive periodic table

Everything you want to learn about Evernote

Seven great YouTube Channels for History teachers.

Math Playground

A Webfolio of great interactive resources

StudyBlue online Flashcards

Can parents opt out of homework?

This article came across my Twitter feed from Alfie Kohn and I thought it would make for interesting discussion.
This is a letter from a first grade parent opting her child out of homework for the year. She details her view by relating that she, as a parent, will be involved with her child's education at home and will support the teacher but will not require her child to do homework.
I have many thoughts on the issue but I'll ask the questions first.
How would you handle this situation? Would your answer be different if this were from a Middle or Upper School parent? Can parents opt their child out of homework?
 Let me know what you think?
Here's the link:
http://alfiekohn.org/teaching/hwletter.html

The most important habit of the mind

This is cross posted at The Faculty Room

Be a solutionist

“Persist and you shall succeed” was a saying I heard early and often in my educational career and this habit of the mind was of paramount importance to me. Whether it was my parents or teachers early in life or my colleagues later in life, modeling the behavior, I became a disciple of persistence. This quality provided me with the ability to search for alternative solutions and not become flustered when the initial strategy was unsuccessful. I learned early on in education you not only may need plan B but C, D and sometimes E.

As I began focusing on this blog entry I realized examples of persistence and the lack of it are everywhere. A good portion of my time during the summer involves creating the schedule for the middle and high school. Persistence is required to deal with the multitude of elective choices, teacher preferences and graduation requirements, all which play key roles in the endless puzzle. However, persistence guides me to the completion of this task each and every summer. On the other end of the spectrum, teachers who dismiss technology as something that isn’t necessary and couldn’t possibly enhance their instruction could be an example of a lack of persistence. They have tried it, encountered obstacles and seem to have surrendered to mediocrity. Yet they expect their students to continue the effort and” give it your best.” Does the teacher work through daily problems or do they become disconcerted when obstacles to learning enter the classroom? Teachers, and parents, must continually model persistence for it to carry over to our students.

Persistence is a higher level skill that must first be observed, then taught and reinforced through problem solving activities. Teaching students to persist requires teaching them to understand. Students need to be active participants in the learning process and this requires our instruction to include relevant, engaging performance tasks which sometimes necessitate thinking outside the realm of the textbook. Simplicity resides in most texts, for true understanding we must teach outside the text and that requires the persistence on the part of teachers to find solutions for whatever obstacles they encounter. We want our students to be able to do this also, find alternative solutions to problems, and become solutionists

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It is frustrating when this stick-to-it-tiveness seems to be lacking in the current generation of students. To overcome this we too must become solutionists and find ways to challenge and motivate our students towards acquiring this habit of the mind.

Standards

Guidelines and Targets


Webster defines a standard as “something considered by an authority or by general consent as a basis of comparison; an approved model.” Standards, by my definition, are guidelines, models and meant to be used as a foundation for instructional design. By utilizing standards in this way, teachers become less reliant on outdated material, have a clear and current view of the objectives for their course and still have the flexibility to adapt their instructional planning to the needs of their students. However, as the federal government has become more involved in the direction of public schools with NCLB, the standards and the tests that follow, have been overemphasized to the point of frustration.
The standards based tests have become the ultimate high stakes chip in the assessment of students and their schools. The test scores allow for unfair and unequal comparisons of student to student and school to school. An ‘A’ student can fail the exit exam and be held back or required to attend summer school for “remediation” despite the fact that they can explain, interpret and apply what they’ve learned in school.
This over reliance on summative assessment is the ultimate example of the assumption “works well in theory.” However, in reality this practice leaves much to be desired. This square peg into a square box mentality hinders a teacher’s ability to adapt to an ever changing classroom environment. Some teachers are amazed that of the 25 students in their class, there are varied learning styles each requiring different methodology. How will they cover all the material for the end of the year tests? What will determine the pace at which they move from concept to concept in their class? Hopefully it’s not a pacing guide provided by state officials dictating that they cover this on this specific date. It should consist of two interrelated factors. How well you have taught the material and more importantly the proficiency level of the students, how well they understand the concept. When our students are on chapter four and we’ve paced ahead to chapter seven to cover the material, how can we justify this to the students left behind? Coverage never equals understanding.
Teachers must have the ability to teach to the needs of their students and this responsibility should be enhanced not hindered by the standards and high stakes tests.