dalepd | Dale Dougherty

Enthusiast

The Truth Wears Off : The New Yorker

The test of replicability, as it’s known, is the foundation of modern research. It’s a safeguard for the creep of subjectivity. But now all sorts of well-established, multiply confirmed findings have started to look increasingly uncertain. It’s as if our facts are losing their truth. This phenomenon doesn’t yet have an official name, but it’s occurring across a wide range of fields, from psychology to ecology.
via newyorker.com

Fascinating article that looks at a range of reasons why some research results have proved hard to replicate over time. It gets to the limits of what we really know to be true.

Content curation

http://thecontentwrangler.com/2010/12/19/content-curation-streamlining-the-process-of-populating-your-social-networks-with-relevant-interesting-and-engaging-content/

By Scot Abel

Because most organizations don’t have enough original content to publish an update every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, a little creative thinking is required in order to load your social network properties with interesting information.

LADY IN A GAS MASK BY BANKSY

Creative thinking is abundant in the art world. When we think of creativity, we usually think about artists, galleries and art museums. But the business success of art is directly influenced by the decisions made by another creative type — the curator.

Curators who work for galleries and museums scour the planet for art they believe will interest and engage their patrons. They cull these offerings together into collections, aka exhibits, shows, weaved together by a common theme (e.g. Native American artists) and often displayed in interesting ways (e.g. watercolor paintings displayed in Moscow train cars).

By extension, organizations hoping to attract attention to their brands must become both curators and publishers of content collections. They must become the ‘go-to source’ for relevant information in order to differentiate themselves from the competition.


Sent from my iPhone

David Carr's column on the movie ‘The Company Men’

"The Company Men” reflects that America is no longer in the business of building and making actual physical objects. Instead, all the energy and resources go into the kind of financial engineering that creates quarterly numbers that Wall Street buys into. Mr. Wells said that he spent a great deal of time talking with chief executives who run large concerns like his movie’s fictional GTX and said only so much of the blame can be laid at the corner office.
via nytimes.com

Teacher Voice: "f**ked company" insight into American schools

I just came across TeacherVoice.com and it kind of reminds me of what
"f**ked company" was, but for schools. It's a site that solicits the
opinion of teachers about the schools they work in and the
administration they work for. Because submissions are anonymous, the
reviews can be nasty. It might not be entirely fair but there's good
and bad here (which applies to the writing as well). Some are quite
balanced in praising good qualities "cares about the kids" against
failings "not a good manager." It makes for some interesting reading.

Here's one place to begin: http://teachervoice.com/ReviewStream.aspx?p=2

One teacher's review of the principal at the "School for Inquiry and
Social Justice" in the Bronx, NY says:

"A legitimate sociopath. Has issues with intelligent women. Always
speaks of her years of experience despite only teaching 4 years. Any
incompetent lazy laird can be promoted by being a mole and kiss ass
(i.e., ELA coach and dean). Refuses to acknowledge accomplishments of
great teachers if she has a personal issue with you (smarter,
prettier, too liked among the staff, etc.). She would often pull me in
for meetings and discuss events where I had disappointed her even
though the events NEVER OCCURRED. Coincidentally, every meeting I was
brought in for was always the day following me turning the current
dean's advances. She wanted a certain ELA teacher to date his ELA
partner (real professional) and never stopped bullying me when she
found out that the ELA teacher and I had been dating for years."

This is a magnet school that got an A on its 2009-2010 Progress Report
from the NYC Department of Ed.
http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2009-10/Progress_Report_Overview_2010...
GreatSchools,org gives it a score of 3 out of 10 based on its test
scores. (The varying reports says something about the validity of
scoring.)

Some reviews are witty, even if nasty, such as this one-sentence
advice about working for a Prince Edward County High principal:

"You have options, but turning a jerk, sociopath, psychopath, or
narcissist into prince charming isn't one of them."

Or a Superintendent in Leander, TX is said to have "got his job only
because he was chosen by the previous superintendent who was in
Leander ISD since 13 B.C."

As I said, some are positive, as this review of a middle school
principal in San Bernadino County, CA:

"A principal with strong principles who will never be accused of not
doing her job. A self described workaholic who expects everyone to do
their best."

The FAQ says the site was created by a California teacher who, as a
new teacher looking for a job, wanted to know more about the schools
that he or she might work in. Many remarks are astonishing, pointing
out the high level of dissatisfaction of teachers with the environment
they work in and the low level of trust present in schools between
teachers and administrators. It would make me question myself if I
were young and considering teaching as a career.

Dropout Rates, Boys and Gameplaying

I just got back from Big Ideas Festival in Half Moon Bay, which is a small conference for teachers and education researchers.   

This morning, I saw this awful piece of news today in the Chronicle --

Dropout rate for Calif. black students hits 37%

It's 40% in Oakland.

One of the presenters at BIF was Constance Steinkuehler, a professor from Univ of Wisconsin She gave a talk on Massively Mulitplayer Online Games (MMO's) and she's been studying a cohort of boys from urban and rural areas.    She began her talk by citing another dropout statistic that nationally only 65% of boys are graduating from high school.   Her background is studying the development of literacy skills and she'd done ethnography studies in Lineage, another MMO.    She was particularly interested in boys who say they like games and don't like reading.   She formed a group who met regularly and most were playing World of Warcraft.   I can't describe her methodology very well but she was trying to assess how games could connect to developing intellectual interests (problem solving, reasoning, etc.) -- gaming as a gateway drug to intellectual interests.   She was very honest and said that her initial work was a failure.   She thought she wanted to help the boys reflect on how they were developing intellectually through gameplay.   She thought their interest in games might be married to progress on learning goals (external goals).    She talked about getting in front of the group of students and starting to talk like a teacher, and taking them away from gameplay. She described their reaction:  the boys would fall back in their chairs and pull their hoodies over their head with a look on their face saying: "just
let me know when she stops talking."  She realized what she wanted to do wasn't working and backed away from it.   She changed from trying to structure what they were doing to creating a much more unstructured environment.  What was important was resourcing their interests, such as providing graphic novels if some of them expressed interest in reading them, for instance.   She saw a lot more progress when she saw her efforts in terms of helping the boys to make progress on THEIR own goals (not her goals).

Someone got her remarks in several tweets:

  • Games as gateway drug into intellectual interests and what @constances learned from the #fail
  • DANGER of SCHOOLIFYING gaming. Gently resource their interests.Interests, Interests, Interests
  • "SHIFT in thinking abt gaming as a means to an end -> to gaming as a means to THEIR end! #bif2010"

Her work was supported by MacArthur and it's backed up by a lot of research data. I introduced her to Make, which she had not heard about.  I feel as though we can learn a lot from her research and apply it to making as well.  I hope I can get a copy of her presentation because I'm sure I didn't
represent it well.

Dropout Rates, Boys and Gameplaying

I just got back from Big Ideas Festival in Half Moon Bay, which is a
small conference for teachers and education researchers.   

This morning, I saw this awful piece of news today in the Chronicle --

Dropout rate for Calif. black students hits 37%

It's 40% in Oakland.

One of the presenters at BIF was Constance Steinkuehler, a professor from Univ of Wisconsin
She gave a talk on Massively Mulitplayer Online Games (MMO's) and she's been studying a cohort of boys from urban and rural
areas.    She began her talk by citing another dropout statistic that
nationally only 65% of boys are graduating from high school.   Her
background is studying the development of literacy skills and she'd
done ethnography studies in Lineage, another MMO.    She was
particularly interested in boys who say they like games and don't like
reading.   She formed a group who met regularly and most were playing
World of Warcraft.   I can't describe her methodology very well but
she was trying to assess how games could connect to developing
intellectual interests (problem solving, reasoning, etc.) -- gaming as
a gateway drug to intellectual interests.   She was very honest and
said that her initial work was a failure.   She thought she wanted to
help the boys reflect on how they were developing intellectually
through gameplay.   She thought their interest in games might be
married to progress on learning goals (external goals).    She talked
about getting in front of the group of students and starting to talk
like a teacher, and taking them away from gameplay. She described
their reaction:  the boys would fall back in their chairs and pull
their hoodies over their head with a look on their face saying: "just
let me know when she stops talking."  She realized what she wanted to
do wasn't working and backed away from it.   She changed from trying
to structure what they were doing to creating a much more unstructured
environment.  What was important was resourcing their interests, such
as providing graphic novels if some of them expressed interest in
reading them, for instance.   She saw a lot more progress when she saw
her efforts in terms of helping the boys to make progress on THEIR own
goals (not her goals).

Someone got her remarks in several tweets:

  • Games as gateway drug into intellectual interests and what @constances learned from the #fail
  • DANGER of SCHOOLIFYING gaming. Gently resource their interests.Interests, Interests, Interests
  • "SHIFT in thinking abt gaming as a means to an end -> to gaming as a means to THEIR end! #bif2010"

Her work was supported by MacArthur and it's backed up by a lot of
research data. I introduced her to Make, which she had not heard about.  I feel as though we can learn a lot from her research and apply it to making as well.  I hope I can get a copy of her presentation because I'm sure I didn't
represent it well.