Picturing America

The National Endowment for the Humanities has a really great site called Picturing America.   The site provides a visual connection to themes and concepts in American history.  There are dozens of paintings here, each with a description and info on the painter.  You can search for topics or use the “Themes” button to browse by large concepts.   [URLs:  http://picturingamerica.neh.gov/index.php?sec=home]

This Week’s Reports

In case you missed the announcement yesterday, Scholastic has released the 2008 Kids & Family Reading Report.  This update to the original 2006 report shows a worrying trend – reading for fun drops precipitously starting around age 8.  There’s plenty of wonderful news in the report as well.  Kids recognize the importance of reading (as do their parents) and a large majority of kids prefer to read an actual book rather than read online. 

Not surprisingly, a new study reports that parental involvement is crucial for student success, Parental Effort, School Resources, and Student Achievement.  This study from the University of New Hampshire looked at 10,000 eighth grade students in both public and private schools.  "Parental effort is consistently associated with higher levels of achievement, and the magnitude of the effect of parental effort is substantial. We found that schools would need to increase per-pupil spending by more than $1,000 in order to achieve the same results that are gained with parental involvement," said one of the study’s authors.

Access, Adequacy, and Equity in Education Technology is a report from the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.  “Educators say they still don't feel adequately prepared to integrate instructional software into their classrooms and aren't getting the technical support they need to fully impact student achievement,” according to a review of the study in Teachers: Give us better tech training, support in eSchool News Online. 

A task force called Bold Approach has released a short statement, A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education.  It asserts that the achievement gap is a consequence of socio-economic issues that are not being adequately addressed while schools are being held accountable for poor student achievement.  The group urges facing the issues of poverty, health care, and early childhood education as a way to overcome the achievement gap.  Dr. Pedro Noguera, a member of Scholastic’s National Advisory Board, is one of the co-chairs.

[URLs:  http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/news/kfrr08web.pdf, http://www.unh.edu/news/docs/Conway_May08.pdf, http://www.nea.org/research/images/08gainsandgapsedtech.pdf, http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=54091;_hbguid=f99984a6-9c03-4824-8e3a-1fcb0386c0ce, http://www.boldapproach.org/bold_approach_full_statement.pdf]

Newsworthy

The June/July issue of Innovate, the journal of online education from the Fischler School, is devoted to the future of education and technology’s impact on it. 

Publishers Weekly covered a story in the U.K. about a new policy by publishers to offer age guidance for their titles.  U.K. Authors protest age ranging plan looks at authors like Philip Pullman and Michael Rosen, who along with others have begun a campaign, No to Age Banding, to stop the age ranging plan. 

Nielsen Online recently released results of a survey on the use of online content.  The Video Generation: Kids and Teens Consuming More Online Video Content than Adults at Home shows that children between 2 and 11 are viewing an average of 118 minutes of online video a month, while older kids, 12-17 viewed an average of 132 minutes a month.

Staying competitive is a story in the most recent issue of State Legislatures, the magazine of the National Council of State Legislatures.  The story is about the increased focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).  “Experts believe that in order for America to remain an economic leader in a global economy we must ensure that our citizens have strong skills in science, technology, engineering and math. Yet international comparisons of student achievement in math and science intensify concern about the United States’ ability to remain competitive.”

[URLs:  http://www.innovateonline.info/?view=issue, http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6566530.html?nid=2788, http://www.netratings.com/pr/pr_080609.pdf, http://www.ncsl.org/magazine/articles/2008/08SLJune08_Competitive.htm]

Science Gallery

The National Science Foundation offers a series of online videos on its Multimedia Gallery page.  You’ll need RealPlayer or Flash to view the videos.  Postings include speeches and lectures as well as a series called “Science in Motion,” described as “lighthearted video reports about news from NSF research.”    [URLs:  http://nsf.gov/news/mmg/index.cfm?s=2]

Social Science Research Network

The Social Science Research Network is a place to find access to free articles on the social sciences, including economics, philosophy, and others.  You will need to register for the site.  And although most articles are free, some do require payment.   [URLs:  http://www.ssrn.com/]

The First IT Specialist

Enjoy this humorous look at the world’s First IT Specialist.  Even the book required some training.  Be prepared for sub-titles.   [URLs:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=S8scuDaPM7A]