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Ethan Demme

Thoughts and Policy for Building a Better Pennsylvania

  • Education Reform
  • Parental Engagement
  • Public Policy
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Lancaster County
  • Education Reform
  • Parental Engagement
  • Public Policy
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Lancaster County
  • Education Reform
  • Parental Engagement
  • Public Policy
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Lancaster County

Education Reform

Build A School In The Cloud

October 26, 2015

SM at UFM 2015-4HD

In his 2013 TED talk, Sugata Mitra – educational researcher and winner of the 2013 TED Prize – shares a powerful example of kids learning on their own. Mitra was working at the time in New Delhi teaching computer programming. Right next to his office was a slum and one day Mitra placed a computer in the slum. “I gave a computer to children who never would have one, didn’t know any English, didn’t know what the Internet was.” Eight hours later, when he came back, the children were browsing the internet and teaching each other how to browse.

Mitra continued to test the ability of children to learn on their own with just a computer. These experiments culminated in Tamil-speaking children in a south Indian village learning the biotechnology of DNA replication in English from a street-side computer.

These experiences have led Mitra to ask some provocative questions. “Could it be that we don’t need to go to school at all? Could it be that, at the point in time when you need to know something, you can find out in two minutes?” In contrast to the way k-12 education functions now, Mitra offers this vision:

I think what we need to look at is we need to look at learning as the product of educational self-organization. If you allow the educational process to self-organize, then learning emerges. It’s not about making learning happen. It’s about letting it happen. The teacher sets the process in motion and then she stands back in awe and watches as learning happens.

This kind of learning is driven by questions: sometimes big questions like “when did the world begin”, sometimes questions related to the natural world like, “what are those twinkling lights in the sky?” Mitra wishes for a future of learning that supports children “all over the world to tap into their wonder and their ability to work together.”

Finally, while this vision for learning is certainly applicable for classroom education, it is equally relevant for a wide range of education options. Mitra says: “you can do Self-Organized Learning Environments at home, in the school, outside of school, in clubs.”

Mitra is continuing his experiments through the organization, The School in the Cloud which is a global experiment in self organized learning. It’s amazing to see how they are tapping into the inner desire to learn.

Filed Under: Education Reform Tagged With: #edtech, elearning, TED

#EIE15 – Live-tweeting the 2015 National Summit on Education Reform

October 21, 2015

I am en route to Denver for the 2015 National Summit on Education Reform. I’ll be live-tweeting on Thursday and Friday. You can view the live-tweets below or just follow me on twitter and join in the conversation. @ethandemme

Tweets by @EthanDemme

Filed Under: Education Reform Tagged With: #eie15, education, excellined, national summit, reform

Preview of the 2015 National Summit on Education Reform

October 19, 2015

summit2015

I am getting ready to attend the 2015 National Summit on Education Reform in Denver Colorado. The theme for this year’s summit is Onward and Upward: Operation Student Success. Here are some of the sessions I am looking forward to attending:

Strategy Session 1 – Turn and Face the Strain: Problem and Solutions

This session will explore how coming demographic changes – impending retirement of the Baby Boomers and a population boom of school-age children – will lead to challenges in state funding. I reviewed the report on this data a few months ago: click here to read the review.

Strategy Session 4 – Communicating Student Data Privacy: Challenges and Opportunities

This session will explore the challenge of student data privacy and provide guidance on forming thoughtful policies. I recently took Foundation for Excellence in Education’s online course on Data Privacy. For an overview of this and two other courses, click here.

Strategy Session 5 – 2015: The Year of Education Savings Accounts

“Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) started as an experiment in 2011 to offer educational choice and customization in Arizona. Since then, the program has grown. Florida passed an ESA program in 2013, and this year three more states created programs and lawmakers filed ESA bills in nearly two-dozen states. Nevada, the latest state to create an ESA program, will soon have all 450,000 public school students eligible to participate.” (from the session description)

For an overview of Education Savings Accounts (what they are, how they work), click here. To read about Nevada’s implementation of ESAs, click here.

I will be live-tweeting from the event so be sure to follow me: @ethandemme

Filed Under: Education Reform Tagged With: education, education reform, school choice

EdPolicy Online Courses

September 25, 2015

Foundation_for_Excellence_in_EducationThe Foundation for Excellence in Education is a leading think-tank in the world of education reform. Leaders associated with the organization include former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education Joel Klein.

Recently, ExcelInEd launched three online courses – self-paced and free – on education policy. I have taken two of the three courses and benefited from the videos and assigned readings.

The first course was Securing Our Nation’s Future: The Urgent Need For Education Reform

A main reading resource: Turn and Face the Strain

The second class was Data Privacy? Get Schooled.

The third class is Communications Boot Camp Winning the Ed Reform Conversation

A main reading resource: 5 Essential Habits of the Network’s Top Communicators

All of these courses are highly informative and worth taking. Best of all,  these courses are student-paced so you can fit it around your schedule and get access to great information free of charge.

 

Filed Under: Education Reform Tagged With: education, excelined, reform

Democrat Candidates: Education Records

September 9, 2015

Democratic_Party_Logo

A recent post recent post highlighted statements and voting record on education (school choice and the role of parents) of GOP presidential candidates. If you haven’t read that post, you can read it by clicking here. Today, I want to look at the history/record of the Democrat presidential candidates as well as their personal history of education to see how they match (or don’t) with their statements.

Lincoln Chafee: is wary of charter schools [source] and one of his main advisers, Diane Ravitch, is a harsh critic of school choice education reform. [source] He attended elite prep schools, including Andover (where he was a schoolmate of Jeb Bush). He did his undergrad at Brown University but also attended Montana State University. His daughter Louisa also attended Brown University. [source]

Chafee is hard to pigeonhole but it seems that he is not a proponent of school choice and is most likely opposed to vouchers, charters schools, etc..

Hillary Clinton: is opposed to school vouchers but is supportive of charter school. [source] Clinton graduated from Maine South High School (public) and attended Wellesley College. Her daughter Chelsea attended the elite Sidwell Friends School and did her undergrad at Stanford University.

Clinton is a firm advocate for public schools but also supports parents and parental choice. Her perspective on school choice is mixed.

Martin O’Malley: As mayor of Maryland in 2014, he celebrated National School Choice Week. [source] He has supported charter schools and voucher systems. [source] He attended Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School and Gonzaga College High School (Catholic, private) and did his undergrad at The Catholic University of America. Two daughters of O’Malley attended Georgetown University and College of Charleston [source] (previously attending Notre Dame prep school.)

O’Malley remains a proponent of school choice despite the general opposition of his party to school choice initiatives.

Bernie Sanders: is not a proponent of school choice and has opposed vouchers. [source] He graduated high school from James Madison High School (public) before doing his undergrad at the University of Chicago.

Sanders is opposed to school choice initiatives.

Jim Webb: is not a proponent of school choice and opposes vouchers. [source] He did his undergrad at University of Southern California. Webb’s children attended public school. [source]

Webb has not engaged with education reform in general but is opposed to school choice initiatives.

Filed Under: Education Reform Tagged With: 2016 election, education, politics

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