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Spiral Notebook » Do today’s students have too much homework?:

It’s all over the news: Kids are spending a lot of time on homework. And, according to some, it’s far too much.

Most of the research that I’ve read says that there shouldn’t be any homework assigned at the elementary level, barely any at the middle school level, and some at the high school level. Homework promotes bad work habits. If the student doesn’t have a firm grasp of the material, the student may spend a couple of hours doing homework the wrong way. How long will it take the student to relearn the material? Another myth is that homework promotes responsibility, when in fact, the research has shown that homework doesn’t do anything to make a student more responsible.

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Yet another post in 2 Cents Worth that hinted at something I had been playing around with in my mind. The use of the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP in a classroom setting. I’m still waiting on the Opera browser to be released in the United States for the DS. From talking to others, it seems that the PSP just isn’t ready, with the browser being too slow.

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And interesting comment at the Spiral Notebook blog entry I would use technology more if…:

I use and have used technology in my classrooms since 1991, the first day I became a teacher. But the longer I teach, the more I see tech support and adminstration restricting the use of technology in education. School districts shouldn’t be in the business of buying hardware and software anyway. My thinking is that teachers should bring their own technology to school and be paid to do so. That way tech support can’t prevent teachers from exploring software apps which aren’t on the “approved” list. It would be a win-win in that tech support can merely provide connectivity and not have to be concerned about my hardware-software. They don’t directly pay for my car or change its oil, after all.

I don’t understand when this would ever work. A lot of teachers haven’t even been taught what the computer can do, and when someone doesn’t know what the tool can do, they don’t know what questions to ask. In the above comment, if it came to fruition, you would have the teachers that already feel proficient wanting to purchase equipment but can’t afford it while other students with other teachers that don’t see the need getting behind. In our district even if you took the entire technology budget and put that on teacher salaries, it would be worth about $867.

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This post reminds me of why I installed the K12 Linux Terminal Server Project. It’s a great way to repurpose those old machines and to run away from the blue screen of death.

For the price of a server, that lab could be running the newest versions of Firefox and OpenOffice.org. If you are looking at a use for old machines, please take a moment to check out the K12 Linux Terminal Server Project.

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After reading a comment to Dave Warlick’s blog on wifi access in schools, I had to respond with a comment of my own.

If you are the teacher of a school district and your IT staff says they can’t secure WIFI access, you need to start asking questions. Wifi access can be made relative secure.

(From my comment:)
1. Turn off the broadcast SSID, this stops the wireless from showing up when someone opens their laptop. (Security by obscurity isn’t the best, but it’s a start! )

2. Turn on WPA encryption.

3. Put the wireless on their own VLAN where it doesn’t have access to internal resources. You can combine this with VPN access so authenticated users can access the internal network. This step requires some knowledge to setup.

Just as a network administrator must take the steps to secure wired access, steps must also be taken with the wireless network.

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New research shows that meetings and interruptions have a negative effect on our well being that may “…contribute to burnout, anxiety, depression and other negative emotions“. Combine meetings with interruptions from students, parents, other teachers, and principals, and you have a recipe for grouchy teachers! A person takes 8-10 minutes to get back into a creative state following one interruption. Here are some ideas I had to help you minimize or eliminate interruptions:

• Students - Lay down rules on when a student is allowed to ask questions or contribute to a discussion. Create procedures for the student to follow to request help or use the bathroom. One idea to ask for help is to use a simple paper cup. If the cup is on the student’s desk or computer, he would like a moment of your time at your earliest convenience.
• Parents - Notify parents when you are available, and distribute your e-mail address. Let them know they are free to e-mail you at any time. Keep the lines of communication open, but tell them that you are not available to take a call during the day. Sign up for a free voicemail account at K7.net and give that number out to parents. K7 can e-mail you your voice mail.
• Teachers - A simple thing such as “If the door is closed, email me” can work wonders.
• Office - Notify the office that you check e-mail twice a day, and that it is your preferred method of communication. Along the same lines, be sure to check your e-mail twice a day! Follow the idea for teachers above, and close the door when possible.
• General Ideas - The best line of defence is a good offence. Let others know what interruptions are acceptable to you. You have e-mail, use it to eliminate as many interruptions as you can.

The key is to put you in control of your interruptions, and let you take care of them when you have time. Everything above is workable (except for emergencies).

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Andy Carvin on his blog presents a case for Turning Wikipedia into an Asset for Schools. Instead of blindly following what’s in Wikipedia, use it to present “teachers with an excellent authentic learning activity in which students can demonstrate their skills as scholars”:

[...]Take a group of fifth grade students and break them into groups, with each group picking a topic that interests them. Any topic. Dolphins, horses, hockey, you name it.

Next, send the groups of kids to Wikipedia to look up the topic they selected. [...] The horse, for example, has an extensive entry on the website. It certainly looks accurate and informative, but is it? Unfortunately, there are no citations for any of the facts claimed about horses on the page.

[...]The group of students breaks down the content on the page into manageable chunks, each with a certain amount of facts that need to be verified. The students then spend the necessary time to fact-check the content.
Once the Wikipedia entry has been fact-checked, the teacher creates a Wikipedia login for the class. They go to the entry’s talk page and present their findings, laying out every idea that needs to be corrected. Then, they edit the actual entry to make the corrections, with all sources cited. Similarly, for all the parts of the entry they’ve verified as accurate, they list sources confirming it.

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Latest study by the Pew Charitable Trusts finds that College students lack literacy for complex tasks:

Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills.

There are some bright spots:

…compared with all adults with similar levels of education, college students had superior skills in searching and using information from texts and documents. “But do they do well enough for a highly educated population? For a knowledge-based economy? The answer is no,” said Joni Finney, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, an independent and nonpartisan group.

I see the problem as two fold. Students see that technology can handle most of the mundane tasks, so they don’t need to estimate when they’ll run out of gas, the onboard car computer tells them that they have 23 miles to empty. The other problem is that students think that since they can find any piece of esoteric information on the Internet, they don’t really need to be able to remember facts. This manifests itself when students are presented with a question where the answer is not on a web page.

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The ‘millennials’ usher in a new era brings up some interesting points in the education of the next generation.

For their grandparents, the bicycle was a symbol of childhood independence.

Today, for many kids and young adults, it is the Internet. “It consumes my life,” said Andrea Thomas, a senior at Miami University. “If I’m not texting my friends over the cell phone, I have my laptop with me and I’m IM’ing them. Or I’m doing research on Google. Honestly, the only reason any one of my college friends use the library is for group meetings.”

Does this just enhance the shorter attention span, or is it the root of a deeper problem? Teachers will need to learn to adapt to this new type of student, and bring in lesson plans that not only strive to be engaging, but also use different types of media. The teacher who complains about how bad their classroom behaves is the teacher that only uses the textbook and worksheets.

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In the article Teachers ‘risk failing computer-literate children’ professor David Buckingham argues that teachers are beginning to fail their computer literate students.

Research by the University of Bristol earlier this year found that teachers were happy using computers at home, but would not take the risk of getting it wrong in front of a class of pupils. Some 30% of teachers surveyed failed to make good use of computers in the classroom - despite the government’s £1bn investment.

I believe some teachers are afraid of failing in front of their students, while others are ignorant to how the technology can make their teaching better and lives easier. Just simple things like setting up a template for their lesson plans, or create tests on the computer. I still see teachers write out their quizzes and tests.

Offering professional development is a start. Unfortunately, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. It must begin with good examples, and go from there. I encourage sharing as much as possible, because when it comes from another teacher it seems to have more weight than from me!

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