1) Progress Report on Fundraising Campaign to Sustain AERO (FUNDRAISER)

2) Become an AERO Distributor! For Individuals & Schools/Organizations (OPPORTUNITY)

3) Update on Online Courses (COURSE)

4) Bridging the Class Divide (FEATURED BOOK)

5) Alfie Kohn: Turning Children into Data: A Skeptic’s Guide to Assessment Programs (COMMENTARY)

6) 20 Books Still Left on Clearance! (SALE)

7) Teaching outside the box: Interdisciplinary program offers alternative to classroom education
(ARTICLE)

Why are so many peoiple in their 20s taking so long to grow up? (ARTICLE)

9) Share Your Voice: What is the Biggest Challenge Facing Education Today? (BLOG)

1) Progress Report on Fundraising Campaign to Sustain AERO (FUNDRAISER)

2) Update on Online Courses (COURSE)

3) 2010 AERO Conference Report (ARTICLE)

4) Response to LA Times Report on Teachers (COMMENTARY)

5) Music from the 2010 AERO Conference (FREE VIDEO)

6) Halt standardized tests, elementary teachers say (NEWS)

7) As Parents Protest, Chancellor and Panel Leave (NEWS)

John Dewey Outlines Utopian School (Article)

9) This is How a Tipping Point Feels (BLOG)

NEW STUDENTS SHOULD EXPECT TO OWE NEARLY £25k, PUSH SURVEY REVEALS 13.08.2010

The UK’s largest survey of student finance, published today on Push.co.uk, reveals that students who started at university last year can expect to owe over £23,200 by the time they leave and new students should reckon on around £1,500 more than that.

The annual survey by Push, the UK’s leading independent resource for prospective students, has found that student debt now tops £5,600 for each year of study. The inflation-busting increase of 5.4% may in part be down to availability of part-time and temporary jobs during the recession.

The Push Student Debt Survey is the most detailed annual analysis of students’ financial position, involving face-to-face interviews with over 2,000 students at 139 university campuses throughout the UK.

Prospective students receiving their A level results next Thursday will be particularly concerned as proposals being considered by the Government and by Lord Browne’s review into student finance may impose higher fees over the next few years.

The different funding arrangements around the UK are also reflected in the data. In Scotland, which has the most generous funding system, debts are less than half those south of the border. Meanwhile, with an average of £6,411 per year, students have faced the harshest increases in Wales, where opportunities for paid work appear to have dried up.

There is considerable variation between individual universities too. The national average projected debt on graduation for anyone in higher education right now stands at £16,614, but at 9 universities, the figure has already broken the £30,000 barrier. However, at 20 universities, most of which are in Scotland, borrowing is likely to remain under £10,000. Read the rest of this entry »

Introduction
Children don’t Start Wars demonstrates the way our capacity for empathy develops as we grow up and declines as we grow older, and discusses the implications of this development and decline.

That is an intellectual description. It could also be described as a heart-felt attack on the all too commonly accepted view that children are irresponsible, adolescents are vandals and adults always know best. Or a declaration of support for young people. Or an anthology of adult inadequacies. Or a statement of a particular philosophy, supported by evidence from psychological research, quotations from a wide variety of sources and my own experience.

The book has been growing for many years. As my son Nathan said when Considering Children was implicitly criticised for not saying anything new, it is not meant to be new, it is meant to be right. Old ideas are connected in new ways, and the result is an unfashionable optimism.

Children don’t start wars, but adults do. Perhaps if we can learn to listen more carefully to the young, the world will become a better place.

Children Don’t Start Wars has been published as a paper-back by Peace News. The ISBN is
978-0-946409-14-3. Price £9

Other books about democratic education by David Gribble http://www.davidgribble.co.uk/books.htm

From Children and Young People

By Neil Puffett

Children & Young People Now
10 August 2010

The Department for Education (DfE) has moved to allay fears that a ban on the use of the phrase Every Child Matters in the new government signals a shift in policy for children and young people.

Details of the changes in terminology are revealed in an internal DfE memo, split into two columns for words used before 11 May (when the coalition took office) and those with which they should be replaced.

Key changes to phrases in the children’s sector include the replacement of safeguarding with child protection, children’s trusts with “local areas, better, fairer, services’” and using the term “help children achieve more” in place of Every Child Matters or the five outcomes.

John Chowcat, general secretary of children’s services union Aspect, said he fears the change in language represents a gradual move away from the Every Child Matters agenda by the government. “I could not imagine this government making a bold announcement to the effect that Every Child Matters has gone or anything like that,” he said.

“The impact that would have in terms of demoralising the children’s workforce would be significant, but I can see a step-by-step shifting of the approach to the agenda. Although this change may be to do with language alone, what is happening suggests we need to be careful about the future of Every Child Matters.”

Wes Cuell, NSPCC director of services for children and families, said: “We hope the coalition will continue to work for better outcomes for children. We are not bothered about the terminology as long as it stays committed to better outcomes. Any signs it is not would be a big issue.”

Anne Longfield, 4Children chief executive, said she is confident the principles will continue to be followed on the ground. “The principles of Every Child Matters are observed in the field and people will continue to use those approaches even if they might not refer to it in the same way.”

The government has denied that changes to terminology outlined in the document indicate a change of policy direction. “There is no lack of focus on Every Child Matters,” a DfE spokesman said. “The coalition created the new DfE to carry through radical reforms in schools, early years and child protection.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT: SOME OF THE CHANGES AS THEY APPEAR IN THE MEMO 
Post-11 May 2010 Key workers providing intensive support to families Safeguarding
Post-11 May 2010 Child protection Integrated working
Post-11 May 2010 People working better to provide better services Narrow the gap
Post-11 May 2010 Close the gap, vulnerable and disadvantaged Five outcomes/ECM
Post-11 May 2010 Help children achieve more One children’s workforce framework/tool
Post-11 May 2010 Local areas self-assessment tool Children’s trusts
Post-11 May 2010 Local areas, better, fairer services Targets and outcomes
Post-11 May 2010 Results and impact Targeted services
Post-11 May 2010 Fairer services

Pre-11 May 2010 England will be the best place in the world for children to grow up
Post-11 May 2010 Make Britain the most family-friendly place in Europe

Daily Bulletin http://tiny.cc/3dnrm

AERO – Education Revolution Newsletter 08.08.2010

1) Progress Report on Fundraising Campaign to Sustain AERO (FUNDRAISER)

2) AERO’s Fall Online Courses (COURSE)

3) AERO Conference DVDs Have Been Made (DVDs)

4) Democracy in Action: Educating Students to Think, Create, Initiate (ARTICLE)

5) Newsday, Letter to the Editor by Jerry Mintz (COMMENTARY)

6) Vote to Help Decide Next Location of AERO Conference (POLL)

7) Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech (NEWS)

Diversity Debate Convulses Elite High School (18-year-old Justin Hudson Speaks Out) (NEWS)

Contact: Wendy Priesnitz (416) 260-0303 or editor@LifeLearningMagazine.com

Not Going Back to School is an Option

It sounds like every kid’s dream: not to go back to school in September! But it’s reality for an estimated hundred thousand Canadian families who have chosen to educate their own children outside the school system. And, although it can still be controversial, it’s a reality that has, over the past 30 years, moved from the fringes to the mainstream.

Toronto-based Wendy Priesnitz is one of the few Canadian experts on the subject, and an excellent resource person. As a passionate and eloquent spokeswoman for the movement, she has been featured on television and at conferences across Canada and around the world and in numerous magazine articles for three decades.

In the mid-1970s, she and her husband began to homeschool their two young daughters. In 1979, she launched the Canadian homeschooling movement, and founded The Canadian Alliance of Home Schoolers, Canada’s first homeschooling support group. In the mid-1980s, she conducted some of the first research on homeschooling in Canada. She is a trained elementary school teacher, an award winning journalist and editor, and the author of nine books, including School Free: The Home Schooling Handbook, a bestseller that is now in its third edition; Challenging Assumptions in Education; and Life Learning: Lessons from the Educational Frontier. She is also the founder and editor of Life Learning Magazine, which has subscribers around the world. In an article in Today’s Parent magazine, she was called “the high priestess of homeschooling in Canada” and “the leading Canadian organizer in the field of homeschooling”.

Priesnitz favours a learner-directed style of homeschooling that is sometimes called “unschooling” or “life learning,” although she is well positioned to discuss the whole spectrum of homeschooling types. Her philosophy centres on the need for a complete paradigm shift about how we view education – public or otherwise. “I am convinced of the importance of fostering independent, student-directed learning – from an early age, rather than just in the post-secondary context,” she says. “I see home-based education as an exercise in self-reliance that allows students to learn and grow at their own speed, and to exercise their curiosity about exploring the real world while developing independent learning skills and the attitudes that are so important to success in an ever-changing, information-based society.” In fact, in a seminal article recently published in Life Learning Magazine, Priesnitz wrote that young people who are self-educated will be well-positioned to thrive in the new economy.

The website www.LifeLearning.ca is an excellent free resource for families who are researching homeschooling in Canada. A number of articles (including the above-mentioned one) about self-directed, home-based learning are available for free at he website www.LifeLearningMagazine.com. And information about Priesnitz’s books are available at www.NaturalLifeBooks.com. Finally, her personal website is www.WendyPriesnitz.com. Feel free to use this material as a resource for not-back-to-school coverage, or to contact Wendy for an interview or background.

14 September 2010
The Royal Institute of British Architects, London
9:30 – 2:00

Join leading figures from schools, colleges and government to debate how to make learning more playful.

Register now to receive the Early Bird booking rate of just £85 – only available until 26 July 2010 (Full Rate thereafter – £135).

Research suggests that UK learners are some of the unhappiest in Europe and performance suggests that they may be some of the least engaged too. New consumer and community learning technologies hold the potential to bring back playfulness and engagement. Our increased understanding of cognitive development illustrates how the problem solving of games can aid other learning tasks; children playing games at the beginning of the school day can start a cultural change whereby “being smart is cool”; and the design of hardware, software and new learning environments embraces the need for playfulness too. We really do know that Playful Learning is highly effective.

Speakers
Lord Jim Knight, Former Schools Minister
Mark Prensky, Writer and Scholar
Stephen Heppell, The Centre for Excellence in Media Practice
Kieron Kirkland, Futurelab

To register online visit www.cemp.ac.uk/play

By bringing together the creative, technical and educational communities, Futurelab is pioneering ways of using new technologies to transform the learning experience. For more information about what we do, please visit www.futurelab.org.uk.

Education Revolution E-Newsletter 20.07.2010

Help Make Turning Points a Bestseller! (BOOK)

Conference DVDs: Now Available for Sale! (DVDs)

Education at the Crossroads ft. Jerry Mintz (RADIO)

A Popular Principal, Wounded by Government’s Good Intentions (NEWS)

Summer Issue of Education Revolution Magazine & Archives Online for Free! (NEW RESOURCE)2nd Annual Clearance Sale Continues (BOOK SALE)

Follow-Up to last week’s item “Intriguing alternative to rating schools by tests” (OPINION)

CSCY Global Childhood Studies Network of Researchers

It may interest you to know that in 2009 the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth at the University of Sheffield established a network of global

childhood studies researchers. The aim of the network is to explore ways of expanding childhood studies beyond Western Europe and North America, both conceptually and methodologically in order to ensure that the priorities and perspectives of childhood studies researchers focusing on the global south are taken into account in existing paradigms of childhood studies.

One component of this network is the establishment of a mailing list which seeks to facilitate networking and collaboration amongst global childhood

studies researchers. The mailing list will enable participants to share information about events and publications, explore opportunities for

collaboration in research and other projects, highlight their research achievements,  share recent research findings, seek advice from others and

engage in discussion on topics that are current in childhood studies, especially within a global context with likeminded people.

Posts made to this mailing list will normally be sent to members on a weekly basis by the moderator. However, exceptions will be made.

To subscribe to the mailing list visit its homepage: https://lists.shef.ac.uk/sympa/info/cscy-globalchildhoodstudiesnetwork

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact Afua Twum-Danso, the list moderator (a.twum-danso@sheffield.ac.uk)
 
Best Wishes,

Afua

 
Message posted by:

Dr. Afua Twum-Danso

Lecturer in the Sociology of Childhood

Department of Sociological Studies,

The University of Sheffield

Elmfield.

Northumberland Road

Sheffield,

S10 2TU, UK

Tel: (0114 22) 26444

Fax : (0114) 2768125

Email: a.twum-danso@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Sociological Studies Home Page -http://www.shef.ac.uk/socst/
http://www.cscy.group.shef.ac.uk/index.htm

Great news … our very own Roland Meighan has just launched his own website.Its purpose is to make some of Roland’s past research and other writings available in one place.
Visit www.rolandmeighan.co.uk

Britain’s largest mobile learning initiative turns its attention to on-demand support for vocational learners and apprentices this summer.

Trials taking place over the next 12 weeks will study the impact of on-demand learning at three colleges in the South East. Selected students at Barnfield College, Aylesbury College, Oxford & Cherwell Valley College and North Herts College will be issued with Blackberry smartphones and given first access to the latest mobile learning apps.

Created with the development support of online learning business X:OR, the new mobile learning delivery system facilitates the first mobile education apps robust enough to play a formal role in the assessment processes used by UK awarding bodies.

The X:OR mobile delivery app allows course tutors to create content, tests and sharable knowledge base resources which students can then access via a Blackberry device. Blackberry 8900, 9520, Curve and Storm 2 are all being assessed over the course of the pilot.

Apprentice students studying vocational subjects will be the first to trial the new mobile learning approach says Terry Salt, Head of Computing, IT and e- Learning, at Barnfield College: “Initially, we’re focusing efforts in areas like plumbing or hairdressing, where skills are often developed outside of the college and in the workplace. It’s here that we believe the new mobile education apps will demonstrate greatest benefit first.”

“We need to understand the real impact that mobile learning has on students’
opportunities,” explains X:OR’s John O’Sullivan. “Clearly we’re working with a medium that the typical student age group is extremely comfortable with, but is a student using the new mobile education apps actually prone to completing qualifications better or faster?  These are the things we need to know as mobile education capabilities roll out across the UK college network.”

Almost 500 students across the four colleges, aged mostly between 18-25, have been chosen to take part in programme trials. Employers and tutors will also help assess the new process.

Students using the apps can access their colleges’ existing wi-fi infrastructure, other public wi-fi zones or use 3G to access mobile learning, upload course work and participate in formal, formative assessments.

Trials will continue throughout the summer to produce final report and recommendations in the autumn.

The Tall Ships Youth Trust’s 60m brig STAVROS S NIARCHOS arrives in London this Wednesday (14 July 2010) at the end of the 10th anniversary Voyage of Achievement, funded by the HSBC Global Education Trust. 

The square-rigged brig will arrive at Tower Bridge at 17.00 to moor alongside HMS Belfast after a 10 night sail from Newcastle via the Continent with a voyage crew of 48 specially selected students from 21 schools from across the UK.  The students, aged 16-18 who will be manning the yards 45-metres above the River Thames, include youngsters from three London schools, the London Nautical School in Blackfriars, Skinners Company ‘s School for Girls in Stamford Hill and Kingsford Community School in Becton. Read the rest of this entry »

Study shows Chile’s school voucher program increased graduation rates

RENO, Nev. – With the effectiveness of school vouchers a hot topic of debate, researchers from the University of Nevada, Reno, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chile have completed a lengthy study on the effects of Chile’s school reforms in 1981. Along with other school decentralization efforts, the reforms included making Chile the only nation in the world to have a nationwide school voucher program.

Nevada, Pennsylvania and Chile researchers team up to complete massive study.
Most notably, the study, which looked at students who began school in the early 1970s all the way up through students who began school in the early ‘90s, showed that the reforms increased high school graduation rates by 3.6 percent, and increased college-going rates by 3.1 percent. It also increased the rate of those completing at least two years of college by 2.6 percent, and the rate of those completing at least four years of college by 1.8 percent. The voucher program also significantly increased the demand for private subsidized schools and decreased the demand for both public and nonsubsidized private schools.

In addition, although opponents of school voucher programs have long theorized that vouchers would mostly benefit the rich, this study showed that individuals from poor and non-poor backgrounds in Chile, on average, experienced similar educational attainment gains under the voucher program. And, there was also a modest reduction in earnings inequity once the voucher reforms were enacted. However, overall, the reforms did not lead to increased overall average earnings.

“The reform reduced the number of people ages 16 to 25 in the workforce by about 2 percent,” explained Sankar Mukhopadhyay, assistant professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Reno, “because more people were staying in school longer. So, the earnings benefits of having greater educational attainment were at least partly offset by the delay in entering the workforce.”

 Read more at: http://www.educationnews.org/pr_releases/93785.html?print

With thanks to David Gribble for this link

PEACE NEWS SUMMER CAMP 2010
Oxfordshire, 23 – 27 July 2010
www.peacenewscamp.info

Join people from across the broad spectrum of the British peace movement for five days of exploration, celebration and empowerment!

This year’s themes this years themes include: feminism and peace; sharing our skills; challenging the military; engaging with other movements; radicalising our lives; and debating nonviolence (see below for more info).

Over 40 workshops, including:

> ‘What Can People Do, Where They Live, to Change the World?’ – Haringey Solidarity Group (www.haringey.org.uk)
> ‘After the NPT: What Now for Anti-Nuclear Campaigners?’ – Kate Hudson (www.cnduk.org), Tim Street (http://icanw.org.uk) and George Farebrother (http://worldcourtproject.org)
> A debate on nuclear power with CND Chair Kate Hudson (www.cnduk.org) and former Greenpeace director Stephen Tindale (http://climateanswers.info)
> ‘Gender Perspectives on Violence’ – Cynthia Cockburn (www.cynthiacockburn.org)
> Protest Camps – Ippy D (http://www.aldermaston.net)
> Drone Wars – Chris Cole (http://dronewarsuk.wordpress.com)
> ‘Arms and Arguments’ and ‘Researching the Arms Industry’ – Notts Anti-militarism (http://nottsantimilitarism.wordpress.com) and Corporate Watch (www.corporatewatch.org.uk)
> ‘Chomsky’s Priority: Mass Media and the Anti-war Movement’ with Milan Rai (www.peacenews.info)
> ‘Profiteering in Palestine’ – Corporate Watch (www.corporatewatch.org.uk)
> ‘How can we stop the war in Afghanistan?’ – Gabriel Carlyle (www.peacenews.info)
> ‘What the Army doesn’t tell you’ – Forces Watch (www.forceswatch.net)
> ‘Militarisation of the Borders’ – No Borders (www.noborders.org.uk)
> Radical Climate Activism – Thames Valley Climate Action (http://tvca.ox4.org)
> DIY power – V3Power (www.v3power.co.uk)
> ‘Can we eat ourselves to a better world?’ – Veggies (www.veggies.org.uk)
> Libertarian Education – David Gribble, author ‘Children Don’t Start Wars’ (www.davidgribble.co.uk)
> Community Economics – Marsh Farm Project (www.marshfarmoutreach.org.uk)
> Participatory Economics – Mark Evans, Project for a Participatory Society UK (www.ppsuk.org.uk)
> ‘Class Matters: Class, Peace and Conversion’ – Milan Rai (www.peacenews.info)
> ‘Lessons from the Animal Rights Movement’
> Protest in Song – Penny Stone
> Rebel Clowning – Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA) (www.clownarmy.org)
> Public Speaking – Rhizome (http://rhizomenetwork.wordpress.com)
> Nonviolent direct action – Seeds for Change (www.seedsforchange.org.uk)
> Nonviolence in Kosovo – Howard Clark (www.civilresistance.info)
> ‘If You Met Gandhi on the Road: Dismantling the Icon’ – Milan Rai (www.peacenews.info)

Plus: Samba, play-readings, poetry, camp-fires, good company and much, much more!

The Camp will be located in a lovely field belonging to farmer Adam Twine at Westmill Farm, Watchfield. The farm is on the B4508. It is about 5 miles outside of Faringdon and about 8 miles from Swindon, SN6 8TH . See map for the location of the farm.

The Camp costs £15 – £60 depending on income. Food (3 meals a day and drinks) will cost £6 – £10 a day for adults, depending on income. Payment can be made by cheque, online or by phone. More info at www.peacenewscamp.info. BOOK YOUR PLACE TODAY: http://tinyurl.com/ye9o4r5

*ABOUT THE PN SUMMER CAMP*

Peace News Summer Camp is an inclusive, democratically-run five-day experience-in-miniature of the kind of world we are trying to bring about. Bring your own contribution to a space that bridges the usual divisions in our movements and our society, where we pay as much attention to how we bring about change as to the changes that are so desperately needed. This year, feminism joins our standing themes of peace and justice.

We will be learning from other movements, struggling with challenging issues, creating greater cohesion in a segmented peace movement and debating nonviolence. Workshops will range from theoretical discussions to practical planning for actions later in the year. There will be over fifty years of activist experience at the camp, along with fresh faces.

Fed by local organic fruit and veg (lovingly cooked by the wonderful Veggies of Nottingham), we’re camping in a family-friendly and renewably-powered way from 23-27 July near Faringdon, Oxfordshire, to make the world a better place.

*THEMES FOR THIS YEAR’S CAMP

> Feminism and Peace*
Gender perspectives on violence, nonviolence and activism

*> Building our Skills, Sharing our Skills*
Nonviolent direct action training, consensus decision making, building a strategy, working in affinity groups, public speaking skills, radical music and more.

*> Challenging the Military*
Let’s get the military out of our lives and out of other peoples’ countries
*
> Engaging with other Movements and Struggles*
What can we learn from other like-minded campaigns such as radical climate activism, animal rights, student activism and European peace campaigns

*> Radicalising our lives*
Food, education, power production and more
*
> Debating Nonviolence*
How can we take effective action?

*WHAT PEOPLE SAID ABOUT LAST YEAR’S PN SUMMER CAMP*

Some quotes from last year’s campers:

“The fascinating and engaging discussions, debates and conversations that seemed to be taking place all the time all over the camp. Fantastic networking amongst groups and individuals.”

“Camaraderie, challenge, ideas, stimulation, re-energising, contacts, space for input and importing information, wood collecting, tree climbing, tripod, all ages, relaxed feeling, lovely food, fire.”

“The spirit of the occasion. Also the chance to discuss in depth issues we have been campaigning for/support and of course meeting folk and getting to learn new ideas and about ‘them’ as people.”

“Discussions, relationships, people, depth of thought. LOVED IT!”

Web-site: www.peacenewscamp.info
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/334b54z

“Anyone who thinks we are just shrinking what already exists on a personal computer simply The Future of 14-19 Vocational and Educational Training
21 July 2010, 11am- 1pm
Campaign for Learning, London
Event Information

David Miliband recently urged the country to revisit Tomlinson’s proposals for 14-19 education. The Coalition Government has introduced a steady flow of reforms to the education system with the decision to allow schools to offer the international GCSE, abolition of subject-based diplomas, the expansion of academies and support for free schools. However by contrast the future of vocational and educational training is uncertain.

Steve Besley, Head of Policy at Pearson, will consider where the coalition government will take vocational education training policy and whether 14-19 is viewed as a distinct phase of educational training. Mark Corney, Policy Advisor to the Campaign For Learning will act as respondent and Tricia Hartley, Chief Executive at the Campaign For Learning will chair the discussion.

The Young People’s Learning Agency: Future Funding for Academies, Sixth Forms and Colleges
21 July 2010, 2pm- 4pm
Campaign for Learning, London
Event Information

The funding of 16-19 provision in schools and FE colleges has been guaranteed for 2010/2011. This seminar will look at the current and future role of the Young People’s Learning Agency especially in light of the proposed expansion of academies and consider the issues in balancing these different agendas.

We’re delighted that Rob Wye, Director of Strategy and Policy of the YPLA, will set out the role of the YPLA in funding academies, schools sixth forms and FE colleges. The event will be chaired by Tricia Hartley, Chief Executive for the Campaign for Learning and Mark Corney, Policy Advisor to the Campaign will provide an in depth analysis into the future funding.

Sheffield Hallam Becomes First U.K. University to Go Mobile with Blackboard
 
New Apps Bring Courses and Campus Life to Mobile Devices
 
AMSTERDAM – 06 July, 2010 – Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) today announced that Sheffield Hallam University has signed a five year agreement for Blackboard Mobile™ Central and Blackboard Mobile™ Learn, making it the first U.K. institution to give students the ability to access both campus services and course content on smartphones and Web-enabled mobile devices with Blackboard’s mobile platform.
 
As students become more and more familiar with using mobile applications to contact friends, order books and check train times, Sheffield Hallam sees the development of mobile applications as a key deliverable in delivering a first class experience to its students. The university is firmly committed to enhancing the student experience and has invested in Blackboard’s mobile solutions in response to staff and student feedback revealing that learners and instructors desire access to course and campus information directly from their mobile phones.
 
“Anyone who thinks we are just shrinking what already exists on a personal computer simply doesn’t understand what is possible,” said Aline Hayes, Director of IT at Sheffield Hallam. “We don’t see our students reading 1,000 page reports on mobile devices, but we do anticipate them using their devices to keep up to date with campus life, participating in online discussions, checking for notifications, and sharing ideas with other course members. These activities are common amongst students in other online communities but which haven’t previously been leveraged in an environment that supports learning.”
 
With Blackboard Mobile Learn, Sheffield Hallam will give students and staff access to two way teaching and learning interactions at a time and place to suit them. With Blackboard Mobile Central, the university will give students and others mobile access to university services including the campus directory and maps, news and events, and contact information. With the apps, new students will be able to get involved with campus life more quickly and existing students will be able to better keep track of what’s new and what’s relevant.
 
Developed by Blackboard’s dedicated mobile team, Blackboard Mobile Learn is currently available in native applications designed for some of the world’s leading mobile platforms and devices including Android™ and BlackBerry® smartphones as well as the Apple® iPhone®, iPad® and iPod touch®. Blackboard Mobile Central is available on Apple and BlackBerry devices and through the mobile Web, expanding access beyond smartphones to a range of Web-enabled phones and mobile devices.
 
“Blackboard’s mobile solutions are already helping students worldwide to find their way around campus, check directories and catch up with news and events,” said Kayvon Beykpour, Vice President of Blackboard Mobile. “The evolution of mobile devices has created so many opportunities, particularly for mobile learning and overall student engagement. We’re excited to work with Sheffield Hallam University, they’re at the forefront of delivering campus life and the classroom experience to mobile users.”
 
“We considered developing this ourselves but we wanted to be able to stay up to date with global developments and be part of a community of best practice as soon as possible,” said Hayes. “We’re delighted that Blackboard’s mobile solutions come from an educational background and are clearly being developed to meet student needs.”
 
For more information about Blackboard’s mobile solutions, please visit http://blackboard.com/Mobile/Overview.aspx.
 
For more information about Sheffield Hallam University, please visit http://www.shu.ac.uk.

Charles Leadbeater went looking for new forms of education – in the slums of Rio and Kibera, where the world’s poorest kids are finding new ways to learn.
TED Talks
http://www.ted.com/talks/charles_leadbeater_on_education.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2010-06-29&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Thanks to Gordon Hall of the Deming Learning Network (web sites: www.dln.org.uk & www.learningsociety.org.uk) for the following video link.

Can we  bring to your attention an excellent 10 minute blog from RSA – see  http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/videos/ – especially the one on “Drive.” It very clearly represents the scientific research that proves that incentives (bonus, targets, qualifications etc) de-motivate and significantly reduce performance – this is a must see clip.

From Life Learning magazine, May/June 2008
Unexpected Benefits of Unschooling by Sandra Dodd

http://www.lifelearningmagazine.com/1006/unexpected_benefits_of_unschooling.htm

From AERO News 20.06.2010

Op-Ed: Are Kids Naturally Lazy or Natural Learners? Jerry Mintz

It wouldn’t be so bad if the current education debate just involved different ways to achieve the same goals for children. But the reality is much more dangerous.

We are talking about two completely different paradigms: One, the traditional one that is failing, assumes that children are naturally lazy and need to be forced to learn. If you believe that then you need competition for grades, passing and failing, tons of homework, long school days, long school years, No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.

But modern brain research doesn’t confirm that assumption. Rather, it confirms a second paradigm, that children are natural learners, that the brain is naturally inquisitive. If you operate on that paradigm, as many progressive educators and homeschoolers do, almost none of the approaches mentioned above should be used. The teacher’s role is to actively help the student find resources to explore and learn about everything they are interested in.

In fact, forcing students to be in traditional schools operating on the first assumption creates a self-fulfilling prophecy: After about six or seven years of forcing students to learn things that they aren’t interested in and are often irrelevant to their lives, they do appear to lose interest in learning. That natural ability to learn is gradually extinguished. Anyone who has ever administered standardized tests to that group can see clearly that the rate of improvement on the whole decreases to a crawl, even on those flawed standardized tests. But beyond that, you see the light go out of their eyes. They retreat to watching television and playing video games. Even worse, they retreat to drugs, or in some notorious cases, decide to try to kill people in their schools or themselves.

The latter cases may be rare, but they do reflect that culturally we simply accept as fact that children hate school. Why do we accept that? If children are natural learners and they say they hate school, something is wrong with their school. Something is wrong with many, many schools.

There are schools that children love, and love to go to. These are under the general heading of alternative and progressive. They are learner-centered in their approach. I know of one democratic school in which the children voted to ban all snow days. They didn’t want to miss anything.

Did you wonder why the government never gives statistics comparing home-educated children to publicly educated ones? In many states homeschoolers are required to take standardized tests. The answer might be because in at least one study homeschooled students scored in the 86th percentile nationally.

We need to end No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. Education is not a race. Nobody tests you in order to allow you to leave the public library. You are assumed to be a natural learner. All people are. All children are. We need to understand the new educational paradigm before it is too late.

NEWS RELEASE. June 17th, 2010
Thanks to Iris Harrison forwarding this from Julie Bunker

Ofsted Home Education Report Seriously Flawed Says Graham Stuart MP

Graham Stuart MP, who last week was elected to take the Chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, today condemned Ofsted’s report on home education, “Local Authorities and Home Education” as “an unpleasant hangover of the last government: a manifesto for more state power at the expense of dedicated home educators and their children”.

Mr Stuart went on, “It is astonishing that the Chief Inspector of Schools should stray onto home education and get it so wrong. In Ofsted’s official press release she says that “it is extremely challenging for local authorities to meet their statutory duty to ensure children have a suitable education”, when they have no such duty. Parents, not the state, have the statutory duty to ensure that their children have a suitable education.

“I find it deeply concerning that, after months of work, the Chief Inspector should make such a basic mistake and so utterly confuse the duties of local authorities and parents. Parents who home educate deserve our respect and awe at their dedication and achievements, not the relentless suspicion of an over mighty state.”

Under section 436A of the Education Act 1996, inserted by the Education and Inspections Act 2006, local authorities have a duty to identify children who are not receiving a suitable education in their area, so far as it is practical to do so. As the 2007 Elective Home Education Guidelines for Local Authorities make clear, however, `local authorities have no statutory duties in relation to monitoring the quality of home education on a routine basis’ and are only required to intervene if it appears that parents are not providing a suitable education.

Mr Stuart went on, “As local authorities do not have the power to demand access to home educated children and cannot insist on parents registering with them, the obvious and correct answer is for local authorities to improve their support for families so that more families make contact with them voluntarily. If they did this and made sure that they employed sympathetic staff who built good reputations, then the number of “unknown” children would be reduced. Such a positive approach would respect the primacy of parents in determining the education of their children and put the onus on local authorities to serve and support, rather than catalogue and monitor, families who home educate.

“Ofsted’s report has little to say about improving local authority support for home educated children and says only that the Department of Education should “consider” funding an entitlement for home-educated children to take public examinations. Ofsted’s report is seriously flawed and damaging to the confidence of home educating parents who had hoped that the relentless disinformation and bullying of the previous regime was over.”

 Family Learning Festival. This autumn it takes place from 16-31 October 2010. Our newsletter has updates on the Festival and other news from the family learning world that may interest you.
 
Be Brilliant! – this year’s Family Learning Festival theme
The theme for this year’s Family Learning Festival is Be Brilliant! Whatever you plan to do for the Festival, we hope you can use the theme to make families feel differently about the world around them and their own potential. We’ll be expanding our themes page with ideas and resources over the next few weeks, so keep clicking on the Family Learning Festival website to keep up to date.
 
For all your family learning needs – visit the new National Family Learning Network website!
The new website for the National Family Learning Network has just gone live. The site has the very latest from the world of family learning including news, resources and funding updates. The site’s forum is also a great meeting place for others in the field of family learning. The new website can be found at www.familylearningnetwork.com.

Reading activities in the build up to the Festival…
Have you tried the Reading Agency’s Six Book Challenge?  It’s a great way for less confident parents and carers to practise their reading skills and model reading to their children.  If they start the Challenge over the summer (while their children are doing the Summer Reading Challenge through the local library) you could celebrate their success during the Family Learning Festival.  Please contact genevieve.clarke@
readingagency.org.uk to find out more or see www.sixbookchallenge.org.uk
 
Education Organisations join force to launch
Whole Education
The Campaign for Learning has become part of Whole Education, a partnership that brings together a group of non-political education organisations. Whole Education aims to promote practices that ensure that every young person has access to an education that will equip them with the skills and knowledge to succeed in life and to contribute positively to the creation of a good society. As well as the Campaign, the active partners behind Whole Education so far include the RSA, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Young Foundation. www.wholeeducation.org

Turning Points: 35 Visionaries in Education Tell Their Own Stories (Hardcover)

AERO members have been waiting for this for over a year! The final version of Turning Points, now in hardcover and with eight additional essays is now ready–just in time for the AERO conference! A major publicity firm is doing promotion! Look at this introduction from Alfie Kohn as featured in Education Week:

 ”The [educators] we’re looking for are those who say, “I want to work to change this system so others will be spared what was done to me.” They have the compassion and the courage to shake up the status quo and denounce cruel traditions. They’ve mastered the art of negative learning and developed a commitment to making the world, or at least whatever part of it they come to inhabit, a better place than it was before they got there.”
Alfie Kohn

Education Week (adapted from the foreword)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Isaac Graves, Outreach & Publicity
Press & Reviews: alternativeeducation@gmail.com
Sales: aerobookstore@gmail.com
Phone: (720) 475-1602 | Fax: (720) 475-1623
Website: www.educationvisionaries.com

Turning Points:
35 Visionaries in Education Tell Their Own Stories

Edited by Jerry Mintz & Carlo Ricci
Foreword by Alfie Kohn

Pre-order online at: www.educationvisionaries.com

ISBN: 978-0-9745252-5-9

$29.95 | 432 Pages | 6×9 | Hardcover

Publish Date: July 1st, 2010 | AERO (Alternative Education Resource Organization)