Random

Mission Hill School: Going for Depth Instead of Prep...

in

Going for Depth Instead of Prep Joe Luft points to this NY Times article about Deborah Meier and her work in Boston at Mission Hill School.

This is what Ms. Meier, 72, is fighting, "top down standardization," bred by state testing programs that she sees as pushing public education toward mediocrity. She is offended that many politicians leading the standardized testing charge, including President Bush and his brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, (graduates of Phillips Academy in nearby Andover, Mass.), are products of private schools that are exempt from state testing. "It's like they're saying a safe, mediocre education is good enough for public schools. After 35 years, I'm not willing to settle for that. We can make city schools as good as good private schools."

Visit to Joe Luft's Classroom

in

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit with Joe Luft and the students and staff of Brooklyn International High School. Will Richardson also was there and we got to spend most of the day in Joe's classroom. As Joe has mentioned, it was interesting to share common issues and also unique situations.

Am heading back to Portland this afternoon. The visits to Providence and Brooklyn have been a great opportunity to think about schools as I begin to move back to a building after a few years in a central support role and also as I finish up this year on leave.

I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to visit with folks like Tom Hoffman, Joe Luft and Will Richardson,and am looking forward to seeing Will at NECC and meeting up with other educators utilizing technology in their classrooms.

Bloggers at NECC

in

This past year, I have been on leave from Portland Public Schools, and have had the opportunity to work in Intel's education web group. The folks in the group are interested in learning more about the use of weblogs in education and have offered to sponsor an informal birds of a feather type meeting at NECC (National Education Computing Conference) in Seattle. I'm hoping to get an idea of the number of folks that are going to NECC and would also be interested in getting together on Monday evening (June 30, 2003) for an informal gathering of webloggers.

If you plan on attending NECC and would like to hook up with others, please let me know via a comment, trackback or email. Once I get a better idea of those interested, I'll finalize the location and then post more information.

A Web Server on your phone...

in

Erik and Mark Baard: May 2003 Archives The personal server runs as a Web server on Intel's 400MHz XScale processor, and connects to PCs and wireless "information beacons" via Bluetooth and wi-fi. The device also takes advantage of the motes radio technology developed at UC Berkeley.

The personal server also makes efficient use of power: it can stream video for 4 1/2 hours without running out of juice.

Want said in a recent interview that the uptake in wi-fi, the introduction of Bluetooth into mobile phones, and the miniaturization of storage media will contribute to the commercialization of his new product. At the moment, the personal server is a stand-alone device, but Want envisions it becoming a part of mobile phones, eventually.