IDEAS 2007!

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December 9, 2007

The 7th Annual Year in Ideas

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

For the seventh consecutive December, the magazine looks back on the passing year through a special lens: ideas. Editors and writers trawl the oceans of ingenuity, hoping to snag in our nets the many curious, inspired, perplexing and sometimes outright illegal innovations of the past 12 months. Then we lay them out on the dock, flipping and flopping and gasping for air, and toss back all but those that are fresh enough for our particular cut of intellectual sushi. For better or worse, these are 70 of the ideas that helped make 2007 what it was. Enjoy.

Airborne Wind Turbines

Alzheimer’s Telephone Screening

Ambiguity Promotes Liking

Appendix Rationale, The

Best Way to Deflect an Asteroid, The

Biodegradable Coffins

Biofuel Race, The

Braille Tattoo, The

Cardboard Bridge, The

‘Cat Lady’ Conundrum, The

Climate Conflicts

Community Urinalysis

Craigslist Vengeance

Criminal Recycling

Crowdware

Culinary Orientalism

Death of Checkers, The

Digital Search Parties

Edible Cocktail, The

Electric Hockey Skate, The

Faces Decide Elections

Fake Tilt-Shift Photography

Fish-Flavored Fish

God Effect, The

Handshake Sex Appeal

Height Tax, The

Honeycomb Vase, The

Hope Can Be Worse Than Hopelessness

Iconic-Performance-Network Player, The

Indie-Rock Musicals

Interstellar Ramadan

Jogging Politique

Knot Physics

Lap-Dance Science

Left-Hand-Turn Elimination

Lightning Farms

Lite-Brite Fashion

Marijuana Mansions

Mindful Exercise

Minimal Chair, The

Mob Jurisprudence

Murphy Balcony, The

Neurorealism

Next Violin, The

Office-Chair Exercise (for Men and Women)

Pixelated Stained Glass

Pop Fecundity

Posthumous E-Mail

Postnuptial Agreements

Prison Poker

Quitting Can Be Good for You

Radiohead Payment Model, The

Right to Medical Self-Defense, The

Rock-Paper-Scissors Is Universal

Second-World Solidarity

Self-Righting Object, The

Smog-Eating Cement

Starch Made Us Human

Suing God

Telltale Food Wrapping

24/7 Alibi, The

Two-Birds-With-One-Stone Resistance

Unadapted Theatrical Adaptation, The

Vegansexuality

Wave Energy

Weapon-Proof School Gear

Wikiscanning

Wireless Energy

Youtube (Accidental) Audition, The

Zygotic Social Networking

Michigan Chronicle to Moderate Meeting

Schools chief Connie Calloway

She's listening

She's in charge of our state's largest school district and as such affects the future employee pool for thousands of metro Detroit businesses.

Dr. Connie Calloway, superintendent of Detroit Public Schools, has kept a low profile in the few months that she has been on the job, using that time to listen to what students, parents, business executives, educators and others across the community have to say about her district, which at last count had about 105,000 students and 202 schools and centers.

The district has more than 17,000 employees as well.

She's heard about the incredible challenges Detroit Public Schools faces from declining enrollment, to closing of schools, to concerns about past mismanagement of the district, to loftier issues such as how to best prepare students for the competitive global marketplace.

In response to this input, she'll address the public in her first official forum from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.

The event is open to the public, but seating is limited. Call 313-873-4542 for a reservation.

Michigan Chronicle Senior Editor Bankole Thompson, who has written many articles about DPS, will serve as moderator.

The newspaper is sponsoring the event, which will include audience questions.

"I go to all the board meetings and they are often disrupted," says Thompson. "We think this forum will provide her an opportunity to give her report of the district and how things are going."

Speaking of DPS and its voice in the community, Steve Wasko has been hired as executive director of public relations for the Detroit Public Schools.

Wasko, a communications veteran of various educational systems, will serve as a primary spokesman for Calloway and the district. He started Monday.

Wasko previously served as assistant superintendent for community relations for the West Bloomfield School District, public information associate for the Detroit Board of Education, and director of news and information at University of Michigan-Dearborn.

CAROL CAIN writes about business and politics on Sundays in the Free Press. She hosts "Michigan Matters" on Channel 62 at 11 a.m. Saturdays and on Channel 50 at 11:30 a.m. Sundays. She can be reached at 313-222-6732 or clcain@cbs.com.

Care to Dance?

Ingredient: AIM Recipe!

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Emotional Intelligence: The Missing Piece

Social and emotional learning can help students successfully resolve conflict, communicate clearly, solve problems, and much more.

by Edutopia Staff

published 2/22/2001

VIDEO: Emotional Intelligence Overview

Running Time: 8 min.

Whether it's in the boardroom or the classroom, individuals need the skills to communicate, work in teams, and let go of the personal and family issues that get in the way of working and learning. Such skills add up to what is known as emotional intelligence, and they are even more important as educators realize that these skills are critical to academic achievement.

Emotionally intelligent individuals stand out. Their ability to empathize, persevere, control impulses, communicate clearly, make thoughtful decisions, solve problems, and work with others earns them friends and success. They tend to lead happier lives, with more satisfying relationships. At work, they are more productive, and they spur productivity in others. At school, they do better on standardized tests and help create a safe, comfortable classroom atmosphere that makes it easier to learn.

Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman popularized the term "emotional intelligence" in his landmark 1995 best-selling book of the same name. What emotional intelligence is, says Goleman, "is the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships." Or, as Maurice Elias, Rutgers University psychology professor, puts it, "It's the set of abilities that helps us get along in life with other people in all kinds of life situations." He calls it the "missing piece" in American education.

Students in Sarah Button’s fifth-grade class at P.S. 15 in Brooklyn learn how to defuse potentially volatile incidents.

Credit: GLEF

Self-Awareness and Empathy

Jonathan Cohen, president of the Center for Social and Emotional Education in New York, argues that attributes like self-awareness and empathy play a huge role in every aspect of life. "We all know that how we feel about ourselves and others can profoundly affect our ability to concentrate, to remember, to think, and to express ourselves," he says. Kids without emotional intelligence "don't follow directions, continually go off-task, can't pay attention, and have difficulty working cooperatively.

Social and emotional learning, the increasingly common term for emotional intelligence instruction, can be a lesson on the hurtfulness of put-downs followed by discussions on ways to communicate "put-ups." It can be a regular morning meeting, in which students share such personal feelings as the pain of their pet dying or the joy of a family outing. It can be an analysis of a conflict in great literature and a discussion about different paths the characters might have taken. It can be a common plan to take a moment to think, rather than react automatically, and often aggressively, to distress. It can be a districtwide commitment to community service. It can be a software program that lets students get a clearer idea of their reactions to risky situations.

At Ben Franklin Middle School in Ridgewood, New Jersey, social and emotional instruction is a top priority.

Credit: GLEF

Miraculous Transformations

Many educators say they are gratified by the results of such instruction in their schools because of its effect on both the school environment and academics. Fifth-grade teacher Grace Wiesner calls the transformation in her Waldport, Oregon, classroom "miraculous." "Disruptions due to acting out, arguing, or talking back have been significantly reduced," she says. Tina Valentine, a fourth-grade teacher at Kensington Avenue School in Springfield, Massachusetts, agrees. "I find I'm not spending as much time with behavioral management issues, so I actually have more time to spend with academics." A number of studies also have found a correlation between social skills and academic achievement.

Instruction in emotional intelligence is not a quick fix or a one-time lesson. The best programs, says Elias, "take no less than three years" to get to a place where teachers are comfortable and students are showing the benefits. Cohen adds that while a growing number of school programs include elements of instruction aimed at a child's emotional needs, too many of those programs are fragmented, short-term, and not well-integrated into the regular curriculum or school structure. "Just as we don't expect kids to learn a language in a year, we don't expect kids to learn social and emotional skills in one year," he says.

Skills More Than Values

Parents need not fear that emotional intelligence translates to a set of values that may be affiliated with religion. "We're not really teaching values. We're actually teaching skills," says Linda Lantieri, co-founder of the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program, one of the longest-running conflict resolution and social and emotional learning programs. "They're almost like tools in a toolbox. I remember one parent saying to me, 'You know, in my place of worship, I teach my kid to be honest. But you give the child the skills to be that way.'" The character education movement, which promotes universal values like respect, honesty, justice, and compassion, is also closely aligned to social and emotional learning.

Social and emotional learning programs work best when parents and teachers are partners, and that means schools need to train both parents and teachers in ways to promote behavior that improves communication, empathy, self-awareness, decision-making, and problem-solving. Parents, educators, policymakers, and business people all have a role to play in supporting the social and emotional learning of schoolchildren.

"We're talking about a whole new vision of education that says that educating the heart is as important as educating the mind," says Lantieri. Rutgers' Elias puts it another way. He says that parents don't just want SAT-smart kids. They want kids who are also responsible, non-violent, and caring: "We want the whole package."

The program profiled in this article is also featured on the Edutopia videocassette Teaching in the Digital Age: Emotional Intelligence.

A Global Perspective

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Global Nomads: At-Risk Students Connect with Peers Worldwide

An ambitious videoconferencing program brings together teens from all over -- and wakes them up to the world at large.

by Elizabeth Crane

published 12/11/2006

Take a group of kids -- let's say they're at-risk high school students -- and give them the opportunity to not only participate in but also design and direct a worldwide videoconference with other teens in remote or war-torn or poverty-stricken locales. Then sit back and see what happens.

Credit: Christoph Schmitz

"Usually, I have to make sure the kids are awake in class," says Shirley Herrin, a social studies teacher at ALPHA Academy, in Magnolia, Texas, outside Houston. "Here, they were on the edge of their seats, interested." Herrin's students dove into the Global Nomads Group videoconferencing program in fall 2005, and they haven't been the same since.

The GNG's Currents program brought kids from countries such as Brazil and Japan into American classrooms (such as Magnolia's) to talk about HIV/AIDS. "My kids assumed they knew it all," says Herrin, when in fact they understood very little about the global AIDS situation. Working on their own, they decided to bring their newfound knowledge to the rest of the school by organizing an assembly at which the district nurse came and spoke about HIV. "This was a group of kids who had never done anything on their own, and they went after this with such a passion."

GNG, whose mission is to bring young people face-to-face across spatial, cultural, and national boundaries through videoconferencing, has been doing so since its founding in 1998. Though the open dialogues have a theme and structured content (designed by the students), the conversation also includes what music they listen to and how they get along with their parents -- in other words, teenagers talking to teenagers about teenage issues. One goal of the interaction is to get rid of some of the ignorance that exists simply because we live in different places. GNG has broadcast from many countries, including Brazil, China, Honduras, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, the Sudan, and Vietnam, while meeting and speaking directly with the young people living in those locations.

The ALPHA students have responded to the GNG message enthusiastically. Distance-learning coordinator Charlie Brown said these kids -- not "your usual motivated crowd" -- "soared" when they began preparing for the videoconferences. At a school where 84 percent of the population is designated at-risk, the upturn in academic achievement has been notable and, it turns out, long lasting. Along with lessons in social studies, geography, culture, politics, religion, the military, the government, and resources, the students learned a little diplomacy, which, Herrin says, is a "huge lesson for our kids."

Most of these students have never ventured outside of Magnolia; the GNG programs brought them some perspective as well. After the Mozambique program in spring 2006, Herrin's students decided they didn't have it so bad after all. They held a fund-raiser (again, all on their own initiative) and sent the $170 they collected to Mozambique, where, they had learned, it costs $130 to feed, clothe, and educate a child for a year.

"It doesn't sound like a lot of money," Herrin admits, "but this school had never held a fund-raising event before. There's not a lot of money floating around our school."

That feeling of being able to effect change has spilled over into other aspects of the students' lives. "They are part of something so special, they get to do something not a lot of people get to do," says Herrin, and that factor has improved self-esteem as well as grades.

"They represented our country in a positive way, and maybe changed how people think of Americans," she adds. Herrin says she experienced "the highest high you can get as a teacher, seeing your kids want to know more, asking thought-provoking questions, and then wanting to know even more."

The GNG programs at ALPHA would not be possible without the school district's commitment to videoconferencing technology. In 2000, Magnolia director of technology Rob Miller installed camera systems in every school and administrative building. "We just put in fiber optics," says Brown. "And we have a VirtualLAN for videoconferencing, which keeps things fast and clear because there's no other traffic." In a district with 8 to 10 percent growth per year, investment in technology is a necessity.

When Brown was hired, he was given the task of finding interesting applications for the videoconferencing system, which, up to that point, had been used only for professional development. He followed up on a Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) advertisement for GNG and ran a trial at Magnolia. The 2004 GNG program, filmed from a refugee camp in the Darfur region of Sudan, was enough to convince him that his videoconferencing system could become a GNG hub. "I liked what happened in that classroom," Brown says.

It isn't enough to have the students watch a video or take a virtual tour of a place, though. A videoconference has to have academic content, and it has to be interactive. "We do no conference where we are not interactive," Brown insists. In an ordinary class, he says, he usually feels he has reached or changed one, maybe two kids by the end of the year. He believes that, after the GNG conferences, every student was affected.

GNG got them out of the classroom and into another part of the world without taking them away from their home. "It has had an impact on their lives," he says. One student decided to graduate early and become an intern with GNG in New York. When her parents balked, she compromised by attending a Texas university, majoring in communications and media. "This is a kid who had trouble just being in school," Brown recalls, and, all of a sudden, she was on fire, graduated early, and is now working toward a college degree -- thanks to GNG's window on the world.

Elizabeth Crane is a freelance writer in San Francisco who writes about many things, including education, parenting, technology, and food.

Originating Partner and Intention (Continue to Build Capacity)

EDUCATION CHALLENGE


Success in learning


International Academy plans to expand with site in Troy


December 6, 2007

BY PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI

FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

The success of students at Oakland County's International Academy can be measured a variety of ways -- from test scores to the colleges its graduates attend to its repeated recognition as one of the top public high schools in the country.

It's also apparent in the increasing number of students applying for spots in the school, and the number of schools across Michigan considering similar offerings.

Already, 10 other schools in the state offer International Baccalaureate curriculum -- rigorous courses that challenge students' analytical and critical-thinking skills -- and 19 others have applied to add the program.

The International Academy is planning to expand from about 700 students now to 1,400 students over the next four years, which would make it the second-largest IB school in the world.

Macomb County's school districts will open an IB school in fall 2008, similar to the one in Oakland County. And Grosse Pointe Public Schools are expecting a report this month about adding an IB program.

"What IB is actually training you to do is step in the shoes of a practitioner," said Bert Okma, principal and founder of the International Academy in Oakland County, an IB school that's been ranked by Newsweek magazine as one of the top 10 high schools in the country since 2002. "It's not just asking you to know biology, it's asking you to think like a biologist."

IB programs use a comprehensive approach to determine if students are learning the material, with assessments that include oral and written reports, traditional testing and community-service projects. Educators say they are more rigorous than most other college prep programs, stressing an interdisciplinary approach to the subjects covered.

The International Academy is run by a consortium of Oakland County school districts, on campuses in Bloomfield Hills and White Lake Township. A third site is to open next fall in the Troy School District, in the former Baker Middle School, which is currently being remodeled to house the high school students.

The Troy district elected to open the branch in order to increase the number of seats available for its own students from 25 to 75. The school will open with ninth-graders and will add another ninth-grade class each year until it has all four high school grades. When it's fully opened, it will double the size of the International Academy.

"I have a coworker; his daughter is going to the International Academy and he's really pleased about it," said Margaret Estes, whose son, Michael, 13, has applied for the Troy school. She likes the international aspect and the rigor of the curriculum. "I heard the program will be more focused on science and mathematics, more so than in regular schools."

Unlike the other two campuses, the Troy campus likely will take students from neighboring counties to fill spaces not claimed by Oakland County students, said Troy spokesman Tim McAvoy.

Macomb County's school is to open next fall in Clinton Township, with admission open to students from any county school district.

It will share the former Seneca Middle School with Chippewa Valley High School's ninth-grade academy, which is only expected to need about half of the building's 1,100-student capacity. Like the Troy school, it will open with ninth-graders in the fall, adding a grade each year until the high school is complete.

"It's not for all kids, but it's a wonderful opportunity for the ones that want to step up and get challenged," said Gayle Green, assistant superintendent for instruction and special projects with the Macomb Intermediate School District. "We've been talking about it for a year and a half, but have really gone full steam on it for the last six or eight months."

An IB program doesn't guarantee college admission.

"Anytime a student goes beyond the regular college preparatory curriculum, it's certainly value added," said Jim Cotter, director of admissions at Michigan State University.

But IB students can get college credit for their high school classes. Exactly how much credit depends on the test, their score and the college or university's policy.

Getting credit "depends a great deal on the level of examination they take and the subject area in which they take the examination," Cotter said.

Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at 586-469-4681.

AIM for URGENCY!

Published Online: December 4, 2007

Education Week

U.S. Students Fall Short in Math and Science

By Sean Cavanagh

Teenagers in a majority of industrialized nations taking part in a leading international exam showed greater scientific understanding than students in the United States—and they far surpassed their American peers in mathematics, in results that seem likely to add to recent consternation over U.S. students’ core academic skills.

New results from the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, released today, show U.S. students ranking lower, on average, than their peers in 16 other countries in science, out of 30 developed nations taking part in the exam.

The test measures the performance of 15-year-old students, regardless of grade level, examining the skills they pick up both in the classroom and outside school, as well as their ability to apply that knowledge to a variety of situations.

In science—the main subject tested on the 2006 PISA—American students scored an average of 489, below the international average among industrialized nations of 500, on a scale of 1 to 1,000. Finland, which has shone in worldwide comparisons in recent years, notched the top science score of 563, followed by Canada, Japan, and New Zealand.

While the United States’ science score on PISA lagged statistically behind more than half the developed nations’, it ranked in the same statistical category as eight other industrialized countries, including Poland, Denmark, France, and Iceland. The United States outperformed such nations as Italy, Greece, and Mexico.

In 2003, the last time PISA measured performance in science, U.S. students tallied an average of 491, 9 points lower than the average of 500 in industrialized countries.

In math, which was tested in less depth on this PISA, American teenagers fared even worse, producing an average score of 474, 24 points below the international average of 498 among the 30 participating industrialized countries. Finland also landed on top in math.

The top-scoring American students’ averages were statistically worse than those for 23 of those nations, and equal to only those of Spain and Portugal. Just four countries—Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Mexico scored lower than the United States.

As in science, U.S. teenagers’ math performance was roughly the same as in 2003, the last time PISA was administered. The United States was 17 points behind the average score for industrialized nations then, meaning the score gap has since widened slightly.

Twenty-seven nonindustrialized nations also took part in the 2006 PISA. U.S. scores in both math and science ranked below those of several countries considered nonindustrialized, including Estonia and Slovenia.

Science Understanding Questioned

Unlike some national and international tests, which examine knowledge and skills that students are supposed to have picked up in school, PISA takes into account learning that may occur outside formal academic settings.

The test measures science literacy, as defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, which oversees PISA. That literacy on PISA is defined as the ability to think scientifically and identify questions, gain new knowledge, explain scientific phenomena, and draw evidence-based conclusions about issues in science.

When compared with their peers from other developed nations, U.S. students scored best—meaning only 7 points lower than the international average—on questions that asked them to identify scientific issues. They were at their worst—scoring 14 points below the international norm—in “explaining phenomena scientifically,” which testing officials defined as interpreting science and predicting changes, and identifying the correct descriptions, explanations, and predictions.

Many American elected officials and policymakers in recent years have repeatedly voiced worries that the United States will gradually lose its international economic edge if students’ math and science skills do not improve, given the flourishing school systems and growing economies in a number of other countries. Business and technology leaders have argued that more U.S. students need to be encouraged to acquire, and be provided with, the necessary academic skills to enter math- and science-related professions.

Senta Raizen, who helped direct a recent revision of the science version of the National Assessment of Educational Progess, a federally sponsored testing program, said those concerns would likely echo once again with the latest PISA results. But Ms. Raizen said an equally important concern—particularly given the broad science skills PISA measures—was that U.S. students lack a strong grasp of the overall nature of science, and by extension, an understanding of its role in society.

The scores call into question American students’ “support for the enterprise of science—their understanding of the importance of the field,” Ms. Raizen said.

“It’s not just about having more people go into those fields,” Ms. Raizen said. “Can kids apply the science knowledge to problems that confront them as citizens?”

Gerald F. Wheeler, the executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, in Arlington, Va., said recent test results have carried the same message: Science is not being emphasized strongly enough in U.S. classrooms, and teachers need more resources and skills to deliver sound lessons to students.

“Why are we surprised?” Mr. Wheeler said of the scores. “It’s a sad state to be in.”

The NSTA official said he was encouraged by the urgent tone adopted by members of Congress and business leaders recently in talking about U.S. students’ science and math shortcomings. But there is far too much apathy among members of the public at large—especially parents—who can stir a passion for science among students of all ages, he said, citing recent polls.

“The policymakers do get it,” Mr. Wheeler said. The challenge, he said, is presenting the issue so that “the public gets it.”

In addition to its science and math scores, the United States was supposed to receive PISA scores in reading. But the reading results were invalidated by printing errors in the testing booklets given to U.S. students, which both American and OECD officials determined would have skewed the results. Officials at the National Center for Education Statistics, while taking partial responsibility for the mishap, said it was the primary duty of the contractor, RTI International, of North Carolina, to make sure the reading exams were printed correctly. ("Printing Errors Invalidate U.S. Reading Scores on PISA," Nov. 28, 2007.)

A Washington-based advocacy organization, the Alliance for Excellent Education, called last month for U.S. officials to readminister the reading test. But NCES Commissioner Mark S. Schneider, in a conference call with reporters this week, said that option was not feasible, considering the length of time it takes to arrange and give a PISA test.

PISA groups student test results in six categories, or proficiency levels. The United States had larger shares of students in the lowest-scoring category in science, at 8 percent, and the second-lowest group, at 17 percent, than the average for the 30 participating industrialized countries, at 5 percent and 14 percent.

Among high-achieving students, 10 percent of American 15-year-olds scored in the top two proficiency levels in science, roughly the same as the average for the other developed nations. Some nations, however, produced a far greater proportion of teenagers in the two highest categories, such as Finland, which had 21 percent reach those heights.

Putting the Digital in One-D

AIM Program: Great Lakes IT Report 12-04-07

UM-Dearborn gets $900,000 NSF grant to teach tech

Posted on 12/3/2007 7:57:40 PM The School of Education at the University of Michigan-Dearborn has received a grant from the National Science Foundation worth $900,000 over the next three years to support a new program for underserved high school students. The program will provide opportunities for the students to build skills and knowledge of information technologies within the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. The youth-based program, called Fostering Interest in Information Technology, or FI3T, will begin in July and run through June 2011. FI3T will employ a concept called "Community of Designers" that brings together partners from schools, colleges, industry and government organizations focused on advanced IT applications in STEM disciplines. The partners will work to create high-quality learning projects, strategies and curriculum models for use in after-school, weekend and summer settings through hands-on, inquiry-based activities with a strong emphasis on non-traditional approaches to learning and understanding, according to education Professor Mesut Duran, principal investigator and the director of the UM-Dearborn project. Duran is working on the project with UM-Dearborn professors Margret Hoft, Brahim Medjahed, Elsayed Orady and Paul Zitzewitz. “In recent years due to the relentless advance of IT developments, the business, industry and government sectors in southeastern Michigan are facing fierce global competition from around the world that has simply decimated our traditional regional manufacturing-based workforce,” Duran said. “This has led to a steep decline in the local, state, and to some degree, national economies. One of the steps deemed absolutely necessary to competitively transform the region from a ‘brute-force’ to a ‘brain-force’ economy is to provide K-12 student-centered research vehicles with a strong emphasis on innovative 21st century career and educational pathways.” The FI3T project funded by the NSF’s Information Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers Program is a direct response to this need, Duran said. “It will provide opportunities for underrepresented high school students in grades 9-12, particularly those from disadvantaged urban communities in southeastern Michigan, to build the skills and knowledge needed to function and contribute in a technologically rich society," he said. After attending year-long IT workshops offered in the context of four major STEM subject areas, students will attend eight day-long field trips during the summer to locations representing IT applications in different fields. Working in teams, students will develop science-fair quality projects in the following school year that reflect their grasp and ability to solve problems with IT applications. Partners participating in the project will include the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters, and the School of Education at UM-Dearborn; Detroit Public Schools and Oakland Schools; and industry partners such as the Survivability Technology Area of the U.S. Army’s Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center; Dassault Systèmes and its DELMIA unit; Fanuc Robotics Inc; Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute; the Department of Systems Analytics and Environmental Science at Ford Motor Co.; the Department of Advanced and Manufacturing Engineering Quality at Ford Motor Co.; and the 21st Century Digital Learning Environments.

PlayAnywhere

Variations on a THEME!

Cell Phone Projector Coming Soon

Smaller Becomes Bigger Which Begets Better!

21st Century Skills / Update

Ed-tech groups issue urgent call to action

New report aims to spark leadership on educational technology

From eSchool News staff reports

Primary Topic Channel: 21st Century skills

"We're not even close to where we need to be" in ed tech, says a new position paper.
Three leading educational technology advocacy groups have banded together to release a position paper that makes an urgent case for why--and how--school leaders should integrate technology into instruction.

"How will we create the schools America needs to remain competitive? For more than a generation, the nation has engaged in a monumental effort to improve student achievement. We've made progress, but we're not even close to where we need to be," according to the paper, titled "Maximizing the Impact: Why Technology Must Play a Pivotal Role in 21st Century Education."

"It's time to focus on what students need to learn--and on how to create a 21st-century education system that delivers results. In a digital world, no organization can achieve results without incorporating technology into every aspect of its everyday practices. It's time for schools to maximize the impact of technology as well."

Released Nov. 5, the paper is a joint project of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21).

"Most people assume that schools already are using technology in the same way that leading businesses and organizations are using it as an indispensable, integral tool for every critical function," said Mary Ann Wolf, SETDA's executive director. "This is simply not the case. Our educational system has a long way to go before the potential of technology to improve teacher quality, increase rigor, and maximize efficiencies is realized."

Profound changes in the world's economy "make it imperative for the nation to be much more strategic, aggressive, and effective in preparing students to succeed," the paper says. "The rest of the world is catching up in terms of innovation, economic competitiveness, and educational achievement."

Schools can prepare their students to succeed in this new 21st-century environment, the paper says--but this will require "broad and intensive use of technology."

Two major obstacles stand in the way, according to the report: The use of technology in education today is too narrowly conceived, and the assumption that schools already are using technology widely is unfounded.

"Despite federal, state, and local investment in technology and internet connectivity, most schools still use technology sparingly, rather than as a critical component of all educational operations," the report says.

"Right now, 100 million Americans have broadband access, 219 million Americans use cell phones, and the personal computer penetration rate is 73 percent. To a wireless nation that relies on technology for ordinary tasks and extraordinary achievements, it is shocking and inconceivable--but true--that technology is marginalized in the complex and vital affairs of education."

To make its point, the paper cites statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce that rank education dead last in technology use among 55 industry sectors.

To address these concerns, the paper outlines a shared vision of what a 21st-century education system should look like. It also presents a call to action for educators, urging them to integrate technology as a "fundamental building block" in three broad areas: (1) to develop proficiency in 21st-century skills, (2) to support innovative teaching and learning, and (3) to create robust educational support systems.

The groups' shared vision of 21st-century education involves teaching core skills such as reading, math, science, and world languages--but also "21st-century themes" such as global awareness; financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy; and civic literacy. It also involves teaching skills such as creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and communication, as well as information and media literacy, self-direction, and leadership and responsibility.

The paper also offers "best practices," or examples of how states and school systems are using technology to address these various needs.

For instance, as part of the Maine Distance Learning Project, high school journalism students worked with students in Alabama to create a news-magazine television show that highlighted the features of each of their regions. And at the Consolidated High School District 230 in Orland Park, Ill., teachers are using instant messaging for optional after-school study, such as lab group work and exam preparation. Teachers report that even students who are reluctant to participate in classroom discussions are "active chatters" in these evening sessions, which they can access from the comfort of their homes.

The paper ends with a call to action among various groups of stakeholders. State and local education agencies are urged to emphasize proficiency in 21st-century skills within state standards, for example, and business and community leaders are urged to support the vision of schools as networked learning environments. All groups are urged to advocate for ongoing professional development to support 21st-century teaching and improve teacher quality.

"We cannot prepare students with the skills they need without making comprehensive use of technology throughout every aspect of education, just as other industry sectors have been doing for years," it concludes. "... [T]here is no time to lose."

ALERT!

SLIPPING SCHOOLS

Poor merit-exam results are main reason 4 in 10 high schools in state fail to meet federal goals

December 1, 2007

BY LORI HIGGINS and PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI

FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITERS

More than four out of every 10 public high schools in Michigan -- including some of the highest-performing schools in the state -- fail to meet the goals of the No Child Left Behind law, mostly because of students' disappointing performance on a new high school exam.

Schools faltered in nearly every area, some failing to meet adequate yearly progress because most of their populations failed the test, some because they didn't have enough students tested, and in many cases, because scores of special-education students were too low.

In all, 43% -- 489 out of 1,149 traditional high schools, charter schools and alternative schools -- have been identified for improvement, while 57% did well enough to avoid sanctions.

Still, of the 358 schools identified as not making adequate yearly progress for at least two years, only 141 face penalties that grow in severity the longer they fail to meet goals -- from offering parents the choice to send their children to another school in the district to a restructuring plan that could include replacing staff.

The rest, because they don't receive federal school improvement funds, only have to notify parents of the school's status and create, then implement, an improvement plan.

Shirley Martin, a parent of two children at Southfield-Lathrup High School, which was listed for improvement, said NCLB is forcing schools to focus efforts on children such as her sons, who are economically disadvantaged.

"Unless they start paying attention ... and try to make everything evened out, not everybody has a chance to succeed," Martin said.

In releasing the high school report cards Friday, Michigan Department of Education officials said the large number of schools not meeting the goals was expected because of the state's switch to the Michigan Merit Exam, a collection of tests that includes the ACT.

"It's a college-entrance test, and a lot of kids were not prepared for it," said Kathleen Straus, president of the State Board of Education.

But the report cards illustrate a disturbing trend in Michigan. While elementary and middle schools have shown improvement in meeting the No Child Left Behind goals, high schools have been moving in the opposite direction. Since 2003, when 288 schools were identified for improvement, the number has grown nearly 70%.

For some of the schools on the list, test scores weren't an issue. At Athens High School in the Troy School District, 28 out of the 32 special-education students were tested, shy of the 95% required. For that reason, the entire school was listed as needing improvement.

"By every measure, Troy and Athens are two of the strongest high schools in the nation," said Tim McAvoy, district spokesman. "The issues we have ... are not performance-related, but rather with participation. That's an issue we're going to have to look at."

But performance of some groups of students was an issue in many schools. NCLB requires schools to have acceptable scores not just for all students, but for subgroups of students who in the past were easy to ignore. If those subgroups -- minority students, special-education students, poor students or students with limited English skills -- don't meet the goals, the entire school fails.

In at least three districts -- Utica Community Schools, L'Anse Creuse Community Schools and Farmington Public Schools -- officials said schools were listed because of the writing scores of students with special-education needs. In all three cases, scores were invalidated because students didn't write enough in response to a writing prompt.

"The students were actually there but they didn't do enough of the writing portion of the test for it to count," said Keith Wunderlich, L'Anse Creuse assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

Despite the invalidation of the scores, Utica Superintendent Christine Johns said she was encouraged by the performance of special-education students. By exposing them to a more rigorous curriculum, she said, "they are performing better than they have previously."

Some schools were new to the list, such as Andover High School in Bloomfield Hills Schools. That school was impacted by the performance of its students with disabilities, but it was unclear whether it was the scores or the percentage of students tested.

But Hanan Wardia of Bloomfield Township, whose son is a 10th-grader with special needs, said she thinks schools such as Andover would see their results improve if they focused on mainstreaming special-education students in general education classes, rather than putting them in special programs.

Her son began a mainstreamed program this year, and the results have been good.

"I do feel that he does a lot better and he's learning a lot more in a general classroom," Wardia said. Bloomfield Hills' other high school, Lahser High, also did not meet the standards.

While much of the cause for schools being listed as not meeting adequate yearly progress had to do with test scores or too few students taking the test, at South Lyon High School, it had to do with bureaucracy.

Students with disabilities can receive accommodations to take the test, such as being given more time. In South Lyon's case, the state approved some accommodations while ACT approved others. But the district was told only one agency could approve accommodations if the students were going to be in the same room, as was the case.

"It was one of those things you learn about life that just isn't fair," said Jean Schmeichel, assistant superintendent of instruction.

Contact LORI HIGGINS at 248-351-3694 or lhiggins@freepress.com.

Get SMART! Go DIGITAL!

Friday, November 30, 2007

High-tech schools pilot program puts kids in charge

BY CARRIE MELAGODAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, November 25th 2007, 4:00 AM
Barnuevo For News

Alyssa Deonarian uses a laptop to participate in a class assignment.

A Giant outline of the human body is projected onto a 72-inch screen inside Middle School 202, next to a jumble of organs and bones that belong inside it.

One by one, eighth-graders in the Queens classroom walk to the special screen. The kids - a mix of new English speakers and general and special-ed students - touch a body part and drag it toward the empty outline.

The traditional skeleton propped up in the classroom looks downright antiquated as it stands next to the interactive teaching tool called a "SMARTboard."

"It's awesome," said 15-year-old Joseph Guerra, who correctly placed the esophagus. Nodding toward his teacher, he added, "You can learn a lot more than if they're just talking."

The Ozone Park middle school is one of 22 across the city participating in a pilot program designed to create and test-drive the 21st century classroom.

About $13.4 million in capital funds, along with federal grants, have been invested into the so-called iTeach-iLearn schools over the past two years.

The pilot program outfits classrooms in the 22 schools with devices including SMARTboards, laptops, wireless Internet access and special lockers to keep all the technology safe when the school is closed.

Teachers receive training so they feel comfortable with the new technology, officials said, and each school has a specialist so technical difficulties don't derail lessons for days on end.

"It's teachers giving students the opportunity to take control of their learning," said Troy Fischer, director of the city's Office of Instructional Technology, which will evaluate the program at the end of the school year. "Students begin to bring more to the classes."

The pilot comes as other school districts across the nation debate the effectiveness of using similar technology in the classroom. Some schools that rushed to equip kids with laptops have since backed off, citing mounting costs and questionable results.

A study released by the federal Department of Education this year also showed that educational computer software made no significant difference in student achievement.

But teachers at MS 202 are sold on the new technology.

In her second-floor classroom, sixth-grade teacher Dana Matorella uses the newest gadgets to teach kids about ancient Egypt.

The students use laptops to research hieroglyphics, filling in their answers on work sheets. Then Matorella gives them a pop quiz - but instead of pencils, they pull out remote controls.

A question about hieroglyphics is projected onto the SMARTboard, and the kids enter their answers using the remotes, similar to how audiences are polled on TV game shows.

Instantly, Matorella can see that all but one child answered correctly - and only she knows who got it wrong. "It's anonymous and they feel free," she said. "They love when I say, 'Get out the remotes.'"

Principal William Moore was an early advocate of technology in the classroom, teaching astronomy courses online when he worked as a professor at the New School in Manhattan.

When he came to MS 202 several years ago, he put WiFi Internet access in the school and bought laptops for every floor. But he never imagined the changes he's seeing now. "We're lightyears ahead of what I ever thought I'd have here," Moore said. "It totally transforms the school."

In Joseph Birgeles' seventh-grade social studies class, students played an interactive game about the old Jamestown colony called "17th Century Survivor."

Afterward, they were asked to justify their decisions on a work sheet.
"They have lunch right now," Moore said, "and they don't want to leave."

Students at MS 202 said they preferred their high-tech classrooms to the ones in their former elementary schools - and particularly like the SMARTboards more than blackboards.

"It's easier to see and learn," said Kimara Davis, 12, who also doesn't miss using chalk. "It doesn't mess up your hands."

cmelago@nydailynews.com

BREAKING NEWS: On Two Fronts (U of M-Dearborn and the City of Detroit)

U-M might tap Detroit as a living classroom

November 29, 2007

BY DREW PHILIP

FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER

Instead of studying abroad in England, Taiwan or Chile next year, University of Michigan students might spend a semester living, learning and working in downtown Detroit.

The program, expected to begin in fall 2008, would have students hold internships with community organizations, take classes taught by U-M professors at the school's Detroit Center and participate in community service and events.

Organizers of the program, who believe it would be the first of such a scope in Detroit, say it would immerse students in the life and culture of Detroit while fostering relationships between community organizations and the university.

The program would allow students to experience Detroit with city residents and leaders, not simply read about the city while in classrooms.

"It was conceived and is being created with the idea of being mutually beneficial to the city and the university," faculty adviser Stephen Ward said last month.

Local planners are creating the model for this in-depth type of service, but it draws from similar programs elsewhere in the country. Louisiana State University routinely sends students and faculty to rebuild hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, and the University of California, Los Angeles offers students service learning opportunities and internships in Los Angeles.

But the U-M program would be unique because students would forgo the societal comfort of a college campus and go home blocks, not miles, from where they work.

A budget has not been set, and the plan is working its way through channels to formalize it as a sustainable program, but U-M Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Lester Monts said the program is "a sure thing."

Organizers say they hope the program will open channels between the university and the Detroit community to help further the revitalization of downtown.

The program also has been pitched as a way to promote diversity at U-M after the passage of Proposal 2, the statewide affirmative action ban that bars the use of race and gender in admissions and financial aid decisions by public universities.

Ward said the program is a manifestation of a larger movement in the university and the nation to stop looking at inner cities as laboratories for study and to begin to partner with citizens and organizations for social change.

Alumna Rachael Tanner, 21, of Kalamazoo, a former student in Ward's Urban and Community Studies class, proposed the idea of a Semester in Detroit as a final class project. Fellow students formed a planning committee in January. Professors and administrative staff helped put the program into motion.

"We have a semester in Washington, D.C. Why not have a semester in Detroit?" Tanner asked. "The culture is so rich, but students spend so little time there."

The program would support 20 to 30 students and cost about the same as a semester at the Ann Arbor campus. Students would take 15 to 18 liberal arts credit hours studying subjects including the development of urban areas and grassroots responses to urban challenges.

Nick Tobier, a professor in the School of Art and Design who takes university students into Detroit elementary classes, plans to teach in the program.

Tobier said he thinks of Detroit as among the "most productive cultural ecosystems" and wants to bring more students into that atmosphere.

Students would spend the bulk of their time earning class credits at internships with community organizations. Guided by faculty, these students would be expected to secure the internships themselves. In preparation, a student planning committee is working with the university's Ginsberg Center to contact community groups that might be willing to host internships.

Tim Duperron, interim chief executive officer of Focus: HOPE, said the university's relationship with his organization has always been positive, and he would love to have Semester in Detroit's students intern there.

"They certainly have the right mind-set and the right spirit," he said. "I'm encouraged by this, because it will be done well, not superficially."

Classes would take place at and internships would be coordinated through the university's Detroit Center at Woodward Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard. The center serves as a university base in the city to conduct research and meet with community partners.

Organizers expect to buy a home near Wayne State University, where students in the program would live.

Western Michigan University has programs sending students to study internships in major U.S. cities, and Michigan State University sends students to Washington, D.C., in a program with internships and class time. None has programs of this scope in Detroit.

"That's something we're going to strongly consider in the future," said Karen Reiff, director of experiential learning at MSU.

Some see this as a way to bridge two disparate communities.

"Having a program would make a big statement that the university is committed to investing in the city," said senior Megan Hanner, 21, of Whitehall. "I have no doubt that the program would teach students the appropriate way to be invested in a city they're not from."

If he weren't graduating, senior Tom Szczesny, 20, of Bloomfield Township said he would want to spend a semester in Detroit.

"It makes a lot of sense because we're connected geographically, but there's a big disconnect between the university and Detroit," he said. "If you have something like Semester in Detroit, it brings a new awareness of the city."

ADD: AIM Program!

LEONARD PITTS JR. WHAT WORKS

Special school formula adds up to student success

November 27, 2007

BY LEONARD PITTS JR.

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

GASTON, N.C. -- "Who you is?"

That's how a student greeted me years ago in a Miami classroom. I waited to see how the teacher would respond to this insult against grammar, but she did the last thing I expected: She answered the question, as if it had been posed in English.

So it makes an impression on me, standing in a classroom here, when a student says "ain't" and a teacher promptly and gently corrects him. It is a small difference, but on the basis of many small differences, Gaston College Preparatory and KIPP Pride, a middle and high school side by side in a former peanut field, have carved out one big difference: They work.

According to the state, 83.9% of GCP students are performing at or above grade level in math, versus a state average of 66.4%. In English, the numbers are 87% to 72%. KIPP Pride posts similarly impressive stats.

This is the latest installment in "What Works," my series about programs that are tackling the challenges faced by black kids. GCP and KIPP Pride qualify, and Caleb Dolan, principal of GCP, wants you to know it isn't because they use selective admission to cull the cream of the crop. As public charter schools, they take students on a first-come basis. Kids come here reading below grade level. Or not reading at all.

So what makes a difference is, well ... the differences: a longer school day and year; high expectations as a matter of policy; reintegration of sports, art, band, physical education and other curricula that have disappeared from other schools; a culture of trust in which students store their belongings in open lockers (if you are caught stealing, you must explain yourself to the entire school); higher teacher pay; a lack of red tape.

"I worked for a good principal," says Dolan. "Strong disciplinarian, cared about the kids. She couldn't hire who was in her building. That decision was made in some central office. She couldn't get rid of the teacher who took naps. Versus, last year I fired my seventh-grade writing teacher because he didn't get it done in the classroom. There's too little time to waste with a bad teacher."

A few years ago, Dolan and Tammi Sutton, principal of KIPP Pride, were teachers dangling "quite honestly, at the end of our rope," frustrated with the failings of ordinary schools.

So Dolan was primed to listen when he got a call from Mike Feinberg: "You guys want to start a school?" Specifically, a KIPP school.

Feinberg recently gave a presentation in Detroit and said he is accepting proposals for places to launch his next KIPP school in 2010. Feinberg and his partner, Dave Levin, have both been where Dolan was -- frustrated teachers. Says Levin, "We kept asking ourselves, what more could we do? And one thing led to another." In 1994, it led to KIPP (the Knowledge Is Power Program), now a network of 57 free charter schools serving 14,000 kids across 17 states and Washington, D.C.

None of whom, presumably, could get away with saying "Who you is?" in front of a teacher. When that happens, it speaks eloquently to what that teacher sees in, and expects from, that child.

So consider Sherron Lynch, a seventh-grader who thought her mother was "crazy" when she enrolled her in GCP. "I thought it was a regular school, just longer time and mean teachers. But it was so different. Some teachers ... only reason they're teaching is so they can get some money. But at GCP, they care about the students' education, and that really makes a difference." Lynch's reading scores have improved by 25 points in the last year.

That speaks eloquently, too.

LEONARD PITTS JR. is a columnist for the Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33132. Write to him at lpitts@miamiherald.com.

21st Century Digital Learning Environments

TECHNOLOGY CLICKS WITH KIDS

Raising the Bar: What a difference a decade of "digital discourse" makes.

Computers transform classrooms

Gadgets get students excited to learn


November 26, 2007

BY LORI HIGGINS

FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

The kids grab small voting devices on their desks, then punch in their answer to a question posed on the screen above them: "¿Cual es verde? "

In an instant, teacher Nancy Conn pushes a button and up pops a chart showing the correct answer -- the green square -- among six squares of varying colors.

All of this is happening on a large interactive white board -- a cross between a blackboard, computer screen and projector -- that Conn uses in her Spanish classroom at Hickory Grove Elementary School in Bloomfield Township.

The boards -- which will be in every classroom in the Bloomfield Hills Schools district by the beginning of next year -- are among the ways schools in metro Detroit are using technology to teach and capture the minds of a generation growing up in a digital age.

At Lottie Schmidt Elementary School in New Baltimore, students in Jim Alvaro's fifth-grade class create podcasts of their lessons, broadcast for anyone on the Web to hear. Rob McClelland, a teacher at the Oakland Technical Center campus in Wixom, has created computer games that help solidify students' understanding of key lessons.

And at Fisher Elementary School in the South Redford School District, students are learning Chinese and interacting with pen pals in China via a webcam, computer, projector and software.

"You always learn something new by using technology," said Natalie Joniec, 10, a Fisher fifth-grader.

Technology boosts performance

While some schools are pushing forward with plans to fully integrate technology, others struggle to do so in ways that engage kids and help them learn, said Ledong Li, an assistant professor of education at Oakland University.

And that's a problem, he said.

"If we deliver information like we used to do in the traditional way, kids are bored in the classroom," said Li, who organized a workshop in June on using video games in the classroom. "They don't feel they are engaged."

Li said technology can be intimidating to teachers who aren't familiar with how to use it, or how it can benefit their lessons. And so much is focused today on improving test scores that it's easy to see technology as an extra. Yet, Li said research shows technology can improve student performance.

Still, some teachers "look at the requirements for raising test scores as the kind of signal that they have to do things in a traditional way," Li said.

State Superintendent Mike Flanagan has announced proposed changes to teacher preparation programs, and he's making the integration of technology into teaching practices a priority. Last year, Michigan became the first, and still the only, state in the nation that will require students to take an online class or have online experience to graduate high school.

Ric Wiltse, executive director of the Lansing-based Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning, said budget crunches have impacted how schools integrate technology.

But, Wiltse said, "teachers are getting more and more creative about how they use the technology tools students have these days."

That includes Alvaro, whose classroom has a blog called the Skinny as well as the podcasts. The students worked on a project that had them research and write about when their ancestors arrived in the United States.

Games that teach

Today's kids are steps ahead of their teachers, in many cases. They instant message, text message, play video games, blog and use social Web sites like MySpace and YouTube.

"Everything we do is about technology," said Kala Kottman of Commerce Township, a senior at Walled Lake Western High School and the Oakland Technical Center campus in Wixom. "It's a big deal."

Kala, 17, is enrolled in the culinary arts program at the technical center. She was among a group of students in a computer lab playing a game created by McClelland, who provides support to fellow teachers.

There are about 100 culinary tools students must memorize, and while they still use rote memorization tricks, McClelland's game gives them a fun way to test their knowledge. McClelland has produced a similar game for two other technical center programs.

In the game, which is timed, students must quickly match a picture of a tool with its correct name.

McClelland programmed the game using popular phrases familiar to kids. For instance, if they click on the wrong answer, they're likely to hear the "D'oh!" popularized by Homer Simpson. If they get it right, they might hear a "Woo hoo."

Instant feedback

The Bloomfield Hills district is making a significant investment in the Promethean white boards. About $2.1 million has been committed to put them in all of its classrooms.

Conn was among the first to try them, and she said they make a difference in the classroom. The screen is connected to a computer, and it takes just a few clicks for her to call up lessons. The board also is interactive, allowing students to manipulate it.

The voting system allows Conn to constantly assess students, asking them to record correct answers on the hand-held device.

The instantaneous feedback means that instead of waiting until she grades a quiz to see who is struggling and which concepts students aren't getting, Conn finds out "just like that," she said with a sharp snap of her fingers.

It also means she can do some re-teaching on the fly if she sees many students answering a question wrong.

Mitchell Shults and Destiny Lynch, both 8-year-old third-graders, said the boards make classes more fun.

"You can play games on it and learn a lot of stuff," Mitchell said.

The voting, Destiny said, gets kids excited, especially when the whole class records the correct answer.

Technology makes it possible

At 7:45 on a Tuesday morning at Fisher Elementary, Deborah Reichman and her students were sitting around a table in a small conference room learning to speak the Chinese language. Reichman, the school's intervention specialist, doesn't know how -- she's learning with her students.

They go over a worksheet, practicing saying words and numbers in Chinese. When they get to a word they're unfamiliar with, Reichman has a plan.

"We may have to change or alter how we pronounce it when Mr. Nemo gets online," she said.

Nemo Ma is a teacher at the Nanao School in Guangzhou, China, and he is usually online when the kids meet to provide assistance and give them a chance to interact with a native Chinese speaker. Often, he places his mouth close to the lens of his camera and slowly enunciates the words so the students in Redford Township can see how his mouth moves. His image is projected on a large screen in the conference room.

The two schools are partnered through a program they call A Classroom Without Walls. The idea here isn't to create fluent Chinese speakers, Fisher Principal Brian Galdes said.

"Our goal is for the students ... to be global citizens, to interact with students from another culture one-on-one," Galdes said.

About 30 kids are involved in the program, in which they also use an online program to learn the language. And they have pen pals at the school in China. They chat with their e-pals, exchanging stories about their lives. But they also work on projects together.

Without technology, "we wouldn't be able to communicate," said Bradford Thomas, 10, a fifth-grader. "We'd have to write letters. And it'd probably take too long for them to reply."

Contact LORI HIGGINS at 248-351-3694 or lhiggins@freepress.com.

LIVE! TV on PC

Ann Arbor firm plans to put live TV online in U.S.

November 25, 2007

BY JUSTIN HYDE

FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

For all the countless hours of video available on the Internet, you can't watch many live events on your computer, and what you can watch -- such as congressional debates -- usually isn't worth the trouble.

But an Ann Arbor start-up may have an answer for what could be a billion-dollar problem.

Zattoo, founded in 2005 by University of Michigan computer science professor Sugih Jamin and Swiss software marketer Beat Knecht, has built a growing video service of live video streams in Europe with 1.2 million users. Its free software lets users watch live events such as soccer matches on their computers with far better quality than what has been available before.

Networks "have so many years of practice at producing live TV. It's a multibillion industry, and we're not going to replace it overnight," Jamin said. "There will always be people interested in live TV."

Launched with $350,000 from friends and family, Jamin said Zattoo just closed a $10-million fund-raising round led by venture capital firms in Switzerland, with another $20 million planned for next year. The company has grown to 25 full-time employees, including 20 in its Ann Arbor tech center. It also has an office in Zurich.

Zattoo's software, developed by Jamin and his students at U-M, uses a technique pioneered by Internet file-swappers known as peer-to-peer networks. Instead of relying on one central computer to broadcast data to thousands of users, peer-to-peer systems make each user's computer handle part of the workload, swapping data among themselves.

While developed mostly for pirating software and music, peer-to-peer has emerged as the best method of sending large files and streaming data over the Web. Internet phone service Skype is a peer-to-peer system, and its founders have launched a video service called Joost using the same technology.

Founded in 2005, Zattoo -- which means "crowd" in Japanese -- focuses on streaming live TV channels, a bigger technical challenge than offering recorded videos such as YouTube or Joost.

Using its software, viewers in Europe can choose from a variety of channels in their countries. Zattoo's technology allows it to respond quickly when a user changes a channel, with a lag time of a few seconds, similar to everyday television. The service is free for viewers, who have to watch a short ad when they change a channel.

Jamin said Zattoo's software offers several benefits to media companies. It's a cheaper way to get on the Internet than other systems. Zattoo blocks its video from being recorded, a key concern for media outlets worried about piracy. And by focusing on live video, Zattoo avoids some problems that competitors face, such as ensuring enough users are online to share data.

Though the company is based in Ann Arbor, Zattoo is available only in Europe today. Jamin said that is due to the ease of reaching deals with TV channels for transmitting their video there vs. the hurdles for doing so in the United States. But the service already has carried big events, such as the 2006 FIFA World Cup soccer championships, and has deals with foreign units of U.S. broadcasters. The service hopes to expand to Asia and the United States in 2008.

"The vision is that everybody will watch live TV on the PC someday," he said.

Contact JUSTIN HYDE at 202-906-8204 or jhyde@freepress.com.

Square Pegs and Round Holes (AIM for Gifted and Talented)

'No Child' Law May Slight The Gifted, Experts Say

By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 25, 2007; C01

Some scholars are joining parent advocates in questioning whether the education law No Child Left Behind, with its goal of universal academic proficiency, has had the unintended consequence of diverting resources and attention from the gifted.

Proponents of gifted education have forever complained of institutional neglect. Public schools, they say, pitch lessons to the broad middle group of students at the expense of those working beyond their assigned grade. Now, under the federal mandate, schools are trained on an even narrower group: students on the "bubble" between success and failure on statewide tests.

Teachers struggling to meet the law's annual proficiency goals have little incentive, critics say, to teach students who will meet those goals however they are taught.

"Because it's all about bringing people up to that minimum level of performance, we've ignored those high-ability learners," said Nancy Green, executive director of the District-based National Association for Gifted Children. "We don't even have a test that measures their abilities."

A study published last month by two University of Chicago economists, analyzing fifth-grade test scores in the Chicago public schools before and after enactment of the law in 2002, found that performance rose consistently for all but the most and least advanced students.

"We don't find any evidence that the gifted kids are harmed," said Chicago economist Derek A. Neal. "But they are certainly right, the gifted advocates, if they claim there is no evidence that No Child Left Behind is helping the gifted."

Giftedness is a catchall term for children with abilities beyond their years. Students in the Washington region are generally screened in grade two, identified by grade three and competing for slots in specialized magnet programs by the upper elementary grades.

Local debate about gifted education centers on the concept of "differentiation," an education buzzword that describes how teachers, particularly in the elementary grades, are supposed to serve students of mixed abilities in a single classroom.

In recent years, school systems have gradually embraced the notion that all students, including the gifted, should study in regular classrooms. Alternatives, such as putting gifted children in separate classrooms or schools, or pulling them from regular classes for bursts of enrichment, are widely rejected as undemocratic.

"Gifted education is not something that should be done by another teacher down the hall; it should be done by every teacher in every classroom," said Marty Creel, who oversees gifted education -- and works with a particularly vocal community of parent advocates -- in Montgomery County.

Regional education leaders point to the success of their school systems as a whole, and to the region's superior Advanced Placement programs, as evidence that all children are learning and that gifted education and No Child Left Behind can coexist. Test scores are up. Expansive, well-funded gifted programs in Montgomery and Fairfax enjoy national reputations. Complaints, they say, come from a disaffected few.

"The truth is that we're showing a lot of success with the method that we're using," Creel said.

To properly serve gifted children, particularly in reading and math, teachers are expected to divide classes into small groups according to ability -- one group at grade level, for example, one above and one below -- and pitch lessons to each in turn.

The problem, parents say, is that many teachers aren't differentiating. Under pressure from No Child Left Behind, critics contend, educators are more apt to teach one lesson, trained on students in the middle, and to expend extra effort on those at the bottom.

Education leaders say that differentiation is effective when done correctly and that any capable teacher can do it. Research supports the practice, although studies show gifted children can also thrive in programs that group them by ability in separate classrooms.

Robert Slavin, a Johns Hopkins University researcher, found that achievement can rise for all students when teachers "regroup" students by ability within a classroom or in separate classrooms. Grouping students across grade levels -- with children sorted by ability, regardless of age -- is particularly effective. The challenge to educators, Slavin said, is to avoid "the negative aspects of ability grouping": low expectations for students in low-ability groups.

Some gifted education scholars are leery of the trend toward serving gifted children in mixed-ability classrooms. They consider the mixed-ability classroom a particularly difficult way to teach gifted children, because students might span a wide range of abilities and because gifted students learn differently than other students.

"You have now made every teacher a teacher of the gifted, whether or not they're trained to do it, whether or not they have the ability," said Joyce VanTassel-Baska, executive director of the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. "I would be remiss as an educator to not suggest it's a very challenging kind of model to deliver on."

Several organizations are studying the impact of No Child Left Behind on the best and brightest students. Their work is hampered by a dearth of evidence. Few states have tests that measure the progress of students who are working above grade level.

In the past five years, the share of students in elementary and middle schools scoring advanced, the highest of three performance levels, on the Maryland School Assessment has climbed from 18 percent to 26 percent. The share scoring at the middle level, proficient, has risen from 39 percent to 48 percent. Education leaders say the rise in advanced performance illustrates the effect of gifted education. Advocates for the gifted counter that the results are irrelevant because the statewide exam tests students only on grade-level work.

Montgomery education leaders point to MSA scores and other "data points" as key to invigorating gifted education in regular classrooms. They have begun monitoring several measures -- including advanced performance on the statewide test, participation in advanced math coursework and AP performance -- as a way to track gifted education in schools.

Parent advocates applaud the effort, but they would like to see other changes, including an explicit curriculum for the gifted that states what is to be taught by grade and subject area. Many parents would like to see gifted children regrouped, for at least part of the school day, with students of similar abilities in separate classrooms.

Already, students across the region are grouped by ability in high school honors and AP classes. Elementary and middle schools now routinely accelerate upper-grade students in math. Most middle schools offer accelerated courses in one or two core subjects.

There is a point, educators note, where regrouping becomes tracking. Tracking, or assigning students to classrooms by ability, has been mostly abandoned for concern that students would be labeled bright or slow based on standardized test scores. Gifted programs reflect an ongoing tension between parent demand for separate classes and pedagogical concern for equity.

Some systems, including Arlington County's, serve all gifted students in mixed-ability classrooms. Others, including those in Montgomery and Fairfax, steer only the most advanced children into separate classes. Prince George's and Howard schools continue to offer traditional "pull-out" gifted instruction.

The key to making such programs equitable, educators say, is that accelerated classes be fluid, with teachers monitoring progress, moving students regularly and tirelessly recruiting historically underrepresented children into gifted study.

At New Hampshire Estates Elementary School, one of the highest-poverty schools in Montgomery County, some students are pulled from their classrooms daily to study reading or math at two different levels of acceleration. One program, called Plus, is for children who are two or more grades ahead. The other, Nurture, is for those with potential who might be hindered by language difficulties or economic circumstance.

On a recent day, in one room, a teacher placed math flashcards into blue circles on the floor and asked students to decipher how she sorted them. In another, students played a game akin to Twenty Questions to deduce the contents of a wooden box. A class of second-graders has published a newspaper article about the recent visit of a goose to the athletic field.

"We have a safety net for kids who need a safety net," said Liz Fasulo, a reading teacher. "But there's pretty much no limit at the other end."