Online Education of the Future

By Sean Scarpiello

As college tuition rates rise more and more many people are searching for new and cheaper ways of educating people. In order to bring cheaper education to more people experts are turning to the Internet. Online courses are slowly being introduced to college campuses across the nation because they are simply cheap. Plus, studies have shown that more information is absorbed by using online programs as opposed to the “old fashioned” classroom learning. Some experts say that the typical college campuses of today will be obsolete sometime in the near future. It is also predicted that online courses will fast track learning so that more people will be able to learn more information at a faster rate. So fast that 4 year college degrees will be compacted into only three years of instruction. Although, there is a lot of hype over this new revolution in college education. Is it going to work?

I think that for the most part it will be successful. However, there are some areas which may not be as successful as predicted. First off, one area where this system may fail would be when it comes to math education. Math is all conceptual learning. Therefore, learning math is much more difficult to learn and teach than other subjects, such as history, which is strictly recall learning. Teaching concepts, in my opinion, would be much more successful if instructors are utilized. Teachers are able to give more examples of math problems, while teaching it in greater detail than a computer. Also, instructors are able to give feedback and help confused students. There are ways to teach math effectively online; however, it is very complex to carry out on a computer.

Another flaw of online education could be its inability to teach proper lab techniques in classes such as biology, chemistry, and physics. This poses a problem because students wishing to enter the science field are expected to graduate college with a lot of lab experience. This lack of lab experience hurts students when applying for jobs after graduation. There are few employers that would hire a science major that doesn’t have any experience in a lab.

This sort of shortfall in online education can also hold true while learning languages. Languages need to be learned by reading, writing, speaking, and listening to the language. Currently, we have the technology to teach many aspects of language, but we are lacking the technology to teach students to fluently speak the language. In colleges, students are able to have conversations in class using the language. To have the same kind of conversation online is just difficult at this point in time. Also, the best way to learn a foreign language is through complete immersion in the language. Online learning simply cannot provide such an experience. Plus, it would be easy for students to cheat during online tests. Students could have a window up on their computer screen like “Google Translate” which can instantly translate a ton of data. Instructors would be unable to monitor this kind of cheating and students just would be experiencing the same quality of education as those who go to class.

Other than these few exceptions online education has a lot of potential to completely revolutionize the education system as we know it. Not only is the future of online education cheaper, but it looks as if it will be much faster and be available to more people, which are all great characteristics.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0228/opinions-steve-forbes-fact-comment-dinosaur-u.html

To All the Children Seeking Love from Their Parents

By Anthony Pellegrino

Today my thoughts are on all the children who are crying out for love and attention from their parents. We parents make their lives happy or we make their lives miserable. May we never forget that we are parents of children who need us. Let us not forget that we once were children. The thoughts and love our parents gave us are who we are today. Please think about the meaning of the poem I wish to share with you.

FATHER FORGETS

By W. Livingston Larned

Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.

At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, "Goodbye, Daddy!" and I frowned, and said in reply, "Hold your shoulders back!"

Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive - and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!

Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. "What is it you want?" I snapped.

You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding - this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.

And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bed-side in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!

It is a feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "He is nothing but a boy - a little boy!"

I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.

Four Day School Weeks

By Sean Scarpiello

Recently in Texas, there has been a law proposed to cut typical five day school weeks to four day school weeks. The idea is still in its initial stages, so there isn’t a solid framework of exactly how school weeks would be structured. There would be an extra hour of school added to each of the four days to make up for loss of one full day. Also, this would cause students to have a three day weekend. If the idea is examined deeper, we may be able to see some benefits or maybe not.

At first, this idea sounds great to both students and schools. For students, it means less work and less days going to school. For schools, teachers have to work less. School administrators love this for budgeting purposes because it means there is less money that has to go towards transportation, school upkeep, and cafeteria costs. This plan is a great way to save money because it literally cuts out one fifth of the school year out for students, teachers and administration. Parents, however, hate this entire concept. For one it may mean that their children’s education will not be as strong as it could be. Also, parents are then burdened with having to arrange people to watch their children for an entire day.

From an educational standpoint, this is probably the worst idea for American education ever. The amount of time that students are in school has a direct correlation with the amount students learn. Even though the plan would be to increase the length of the four remaining school days, there would still be a loss of hours of instruction. A few hours here and there add up and at the end of the school year there would be a significantly less amount of instruction time. The argument that some people have is that students will be doing more work outside of class on their own. This is terrible reasoning because students in middle school and below need the direction and guidance of teachers. Simply telling children to teach themselves math is not a good solution.

Furthermore, students’ mindsets would definitely change when it comes to school. Since they are only going to school for a little more than half of the week, students would develop a poor attitude about school and learning. They would most likely become lazier and be more likely to skip school in high school and college. The education of students in Texas may even lose out later on in life because of their lower amount of education. Colleges would be more cautious about accepting Texas students because those students may be labeled as poorly educated.

In all, it is important to try to save money in the education field and many people are finding great ways to bring cheaper education to more people. This idea is just bad. As professionals seek new ways of improving education, it is vital to remember that the quality of education should never take the back seat to saving money.

Source: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/education&id=8003913

Restructuring the School Year for Success

By Sean Scarpiello

Over past years, the United States has slowly begun to drop in the ranks of the best educated students around the world. As students from all across the globe take standardized tests, it is becoming clear that one of the world’s superpowers is not doing so well among its peers. Countries like Japan, China (particularly in Shanghai), are proving to have some of the highest test scores in math and science. As the United States struggles among other emerging countries, many people are wondering exactly what is the United States’ educational system doing wrong. What can we learn from other countries’ educational system in order to improve that of the United States?

One initial solution to the problem that is constantly argued by critics is to increase the number of days students go to school. Japanese students attend more than 60 extra days of schools when compared to students in the United States. The Japanese also did much better on tests in comparison to the United States. There is definitely a correlation between the number of days at school and test score, but I do not see the benefits of adding 60 more school days to American students. Increasing the school year by 60 days in the United States would cause more harm than good. It would increase the length of the school year by 33% and thus all the teachers’ paychecks would need to be increased by 33% as well. This would just cause too much of an increase in taxes that Americans would be paying. Plus, it would increase costs for school districts in many other areas, such as transportation and cafeteria costs.

There could still be a bit of an increase in the number days students go to school, but I do not think any more than 20 extra days would be beneficial. Just a small increase in the number of school days would allow teachers to move at a bit of a slower pace so that students can take their time to learn the information more fully. It would also alleviate a lot of the stress for teachers so that there is not anything in the curriculum that needs to be crammed into the last week of school. A few weeks extension would also increase the pay of the teachers, but not to a huge or unmanageable extent.

Another option is to have a school year that goes through the summer. I know that it is an unpopular idea but it would definitely raise test scores. The lack of a long summer break in countries like Japan and China are more beneficial than their extra school days. In the US, the first two to three months of the school year are a review of the material learned the previous year. If there was just a constant flow of learning, material would not have to be relearned each year and more would get done. There is too much wasted time that goes towards relearning material in schools and to win that time back would allow a lot more new material to be taught. The transformation to a year round school year would not be difficult. Winter and spring breaks could be made longer and summer break could be made shorter in order to implement this year round learning. If the United States education system adopted a year round regimen, there wouldn’t be a need for lengthening the school year because time will be saved by simply not reviewing the previous year’s material.

Ultimately, either option could help out the United States greatly in the international ranks. However, each would take a lot of time and collaboration to design a schedule that is both practical and efficient.

Sources:

http://blog.brainstormusa.com/?p=158

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/December/International-Test-Scores-US-Not-in-Top-10-/

Quizlet

By Sean Scarpiello

One of the most effective ways of learning, according to science, is repetition of information. The human brain is practically wired to soak up data that is repeated over and over. One tool that I have used in past for studying which utilizes the benefits of repetition is a website called Quizlet. I have found it to be an extraordinary study tool for tests.

Quizlet is a free service that is simple to use. All you need is an email address to set up an account and you have access to the program. The website allows people to make up their own flash cards of the information that they need to study. Quizlet then allows users to play games with their cards or just study the information as if they are real flash cards. It is extremely easy to use and completely free. Another advantage to Quizlet is that the website can save each user’s cards and organize them into separate lists for each subject of material. There is also a feature which allows people to share lists of cards so that users do not need to create new lists. Instead, users can simply search for a list of cards and get results which match their exact subject of information.

An advantage of sharing the information lets teachers make up lists and post them onto the site for their students to use. I feel that this is a great idea and gives students the ability to learn in a way that doesn’t involve tedious writing or outlining. Teachers can also use it as a class activity in the computer lab on a day before a test so that students can study in an effective manner in class. Also, the program can be used in practically every subject. I have found that Quizlet is extremely useful for learning the vocabulary in a foreign language class. There are also ways of implementing it in science classes for learning the definitions of terms and even in math classes to memorize formulas. Some people are even more creative and use it to study for standardized tests, such as the SAT, ACT, or even the MCAT.

Although Quizlet has a lot of benefits, there are some downsides to the website. For one, the list of cards that are placed up on the site for all to use may not be correct data. These days, it is not right to trust anyone online. However, one may feel that the information on the cards is correct, but in reality, students may be studying the wrong set of information. One other disadvantage is that some students may miss out on leaning the entirety of information for tests. It is easy to memorize long lists of information but simply not all types of information can be learned by writing it on a card and memorizing it. I have seen students memorize only terms on Quizlet for tests and then disregard the concepts and processes that accompany learning in subjects like math and science.

One final advantage which really sells Quizlet is that it has apps for the iPhone, Palm, and other smart phones. This is awesome because it enables users to study terms on the go. This allows students to study at times when they are not around a computer. It makes it easy for students to increase the number of repetitions for studying which is great.

http://quizlet.com/

Homeschooling: Hot or Not?

By Sean Scarpiello

In the past few years, there has been a steady climb in the number of students who are homeschooled. Some parents feel that their children can get a better education at home; a place where more can get accomplished in a shorter amount of time and at a lower cost. Are these parents actually helping their children by homeschooling, or are they denying them of a quality education?

The most important learning that takes place in schools does not happen in the classroom. It is in the hallway, cafeteria, and at recess. These are the main locations where students socialize, an extremely important aspect of schooling that is simply missed out by homeschool students. It is vital that children learn to associate and communicate with their peers, as well as making friends and developing basic people skills. These skills include things like sharing, apologizing, and developing some independence. Some homeschooled students definitely miss out on this sort of development and human interaction. Even as students become older, high school and college is a place to develop street smarts, independence, networking skills, and friendships. These are all experiences that are missed by homeschooled students. I’m not saying that all homeschool students are social recluses, but I definitely think that these students miss out on some awesome learning experiences and the opportunities to meet some pretty amazing people.

Another con of homeschooling is that it costs more money than public schools. Parents need to buy expensive textbooks each year. This makes it very difficult for the poorer students, who live in areas with bad schools, to be homeschools because of the expense. Also, unless parents can afford tutors, some students may lack in some skills such as writing, especially if their parents aren’t good writers. This could be a problem because students would only be as strong as a writer as their parents. This lack of academic skill may not be sufficient to pass the final exams that students must take each year. If they fail the exam, then they are year behind in writing or reading which poses a large problem for the students and parents.

There are some special cases where the school has a bad learning environment and homeschooling is the next best option. There is also the argument that a particular student may have a learning disability which is best handled at home or by parents. For these students, homeschooling can definitely prove to be more effective than regular schooling. Additionally, some religions also prefer that students are not subjected to some of the activities that go on at schools. Therefore, children with those beliefs are homeschooled and still have the opportunities to socialize with others. If parents do chose to homeschool their children, they should make sure that their children have enough exposure with other children their age in order to have some social skills for when they later enter the workforce as adults.

A Learning Concept

By Sean Scarpiello

I recently heard the statistic from my Psychology professor that 65% of the population are visual learners. This means that when people can see or visualize data in their heads, it is easier for them to retain that information. I am a visual learner myself and one of the greatest yet underutilized tools for learning via visual stimulus are concept maps. A concept map is simply a way of showing how a series of interrelated topics relate. They should be used more often in the education field and cause more bang for the buck.

Concept maps are typically utilized by science students and one huge misunderstanding about these tools, is that they are only useful in science. In fact, concept maps can be useful in more than natural sciences like biology and chemistry, but also in subjects like political science, economics, business and even math. They can also be quite useful when developing an argument for a debate or a persuasive speech or paper. I find that concept maps are an efficient form of learning. For me, I find that learning about the interaction between topics is easier and more effective when I make the connections on paper, as opposed to having to make the same connections in my mind.

One way schools can implement these into classes would be to create concept maps as a class activity. There is a program available online called “Cmap Tools.” This is a free, downloadable program that enables students to create concept maps on their computer. It is extremely easy to use and download. Since it is completely free, teachers can be sure it is not a risky investment that may fail in helping students. Teachers can have a class activity dedicated to learning how to make them or they can hand out pre-made concept maps to use as a study guide. If teachers don’t have a projector for teaching students on the “Cmap Tools” program, they can easily teach students about concept maps using a regular black board.

The nice thing about concept maps in general is that they can be used for so many different activities both in and out of the classroom; this includes everything from note taking and studying, to modeling projects and evaluating fine details of complex subjects. One way I saw concept maps being utilized creatively was for a debate. It allows a debater to view both sides of that argument and makes it easier to address the weaker points of an argument that can be improved upon. If more people knew about the capabilities of concept maps, they could even be used at a person’s place of employment. This could include everything from lawyers to video game designers.

Cmap Tools Site: http://cmap.ihmc.us/