What are Effective Schools?

Yes, if you want to improve something, you must ask the right questions. How do you ask the right questions about making a community's high school effective? Find effective schools that resemble your demographics and implement similar strategies.

One concern from some readers might be with this point: "All students must learn the advanced skills that are the key to success in college and in the 21st century workplace...." What does that mean? Is the all4ed organization saying that all students should be required to go to college?

I'm wondering.

Is this the breakpoint where we raise compulsory education to the 14th grade?

I agree with all the ideas, but I'm wondering if the ten points might be clarified in a way that encourages more reader acknowledgment and acceptance. I believe that initial acceptance or tolerance for an idea will lead readers to a continued study the ideas presented. If some readers are put off by the language describing the first point, it may be difficult to get them to proceed to the other elements.

I believe in the effective schools movement where effective communication is the primary concern, the key to success, of any education reform.

clipped from all4ed.org Regardless of their plans, all of the nation's young people need high-level knowledge and skills to achieve success in a rapidly changing world of technological advances and international competitiveness. And every American has a stake in their success, whether they have school-age children of their own or not. children of their own or not. How effective is your community's high school in educating its students? You don't have to be a school superintendent or member of Congress to help the six million students most at risk of failing to graduate from high school. Drawing from the work of leading researchers and educators from around the country, the Alliance for Excellent Education has identified ten key elements that every high school should have in place to ensure that all its students are successful. The list includes challenging classes, a safe learning environment, and skilled teachers.

Criminals Profile Their Targets

A variety of mathematical models have been developed to help law enforcement find lawless hotspots that can develop once a crime has happened.
This is excellent research, and it seems to me that police and other agencies could benefit from using the data.

clipped from www.nsf.gov View video Researchers teamed up with the LAPD to model the math behind spikes in crime. Credit and Larger Version View a video showing how math modeling is used to understand crime spikes. What causes a crime wave and what measures should law enforcement use to reduce the spread of criminal offense? Researchers at UCLA and the University of California, Irvine, who are funded by the Human and Social Dynamics program at the National Science Foundation, say they may have an answer. Bertozzi's conclusions come from research involving a system of mathematical equations that uses empirical evidence for how repeat offenders move and mix in society, as well as how they choose their targets. She and her colleagues report their findings this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The models "provide a useful framework in which to investigate the formation of crime patterns and the impact of alternative policing strategies on crime hotspot stability,"

New Archetypes of Learning

This is an excellent portrayal of the new archetype of learning: student centered, team oriented and driven by real life problems or projects. This type of learning is at the far end of the Sutman scale.

Thanks to @teromakatero from my Plurk network for this link.

clipped from www.youtube.com Watch this video in a new window Hyper Island in a Nutshell

Join with Me Today!

The Cause by Shavar Ross
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

While I'm not much a joiner, there are a few groups and activities that I believe deserve a multitude of participants.

If I do join a group, it's because the cause is educational and worthy in its mission. One of these is the ad hoc affiliation promoting the international blogging day, Ada Lovelace Day, Wednesday, March 24, 2010. It was initiated last year to recognize the aspirations and accomplishments of women in science, mathematics, engineering and technology.

Last year was their founding year, and I joined. I selected a young programmer, Tamsin Bowles, to honor on Ada Lovelace Day 2009. Read my Ada Lovelace Day 2009 post.

I'd like to invite you, my readers, to join me and pledge to blog for the Ada Lovelace Day 2010. It's a very simple process:

• Go to the Finding Ada website.
• Complete the simple pledge form.
• Decide who you will blog about on Ada Lovelace Day 2010.
• Blog on Ada Lovelace Day 2010, Wednesday, March 24th.
• Link your blog post to the Finding Ada website.
• Share your blog post on your networks.

Additional Resources:
Who is Ada Lovelace?
Finding Ada Blog
Finding Ada on Twitter
Finding Ada FaceBook Group

Sunday's Simple Subject: LinkBacks

Silver Links by Jimby K
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Are you using linkbacks, also known as trackbacks, to help track your blog posts?

Last year, I discussed an issue of concern among our professional learning network It's the issue of people not referencing someone else's work and calling it their own.

Many of you commented on this topic, so I've investigated some processes that can help the author minimize these problems.

While I discovered many blog authors who have trackback urls, I learned that Blogger doesn't. They do have a linkback procedure. Google Help refers to backlinks that you can set by going to the Settings on your Blogger dashboard, under Comments. There are many caveats, so I would recommend that you read the help reference thoroughly before you try to set up your back links in Blogger hosted blog posts.

If you are looking for linkbacks or trackbacks on other blogs, they may also be called pingbacks or, rarely, refbacks. I also look for these at the end of a blog post. I use these urls when I link the blogs in my post, so the author can actually see how their blog post was referenced.

What is your procedure for trackbacks?

Saturday Specifics: VOKLE

Recently, I subscribed to the Huffington Post online, as many of my PLN were quoting their articles. I also signed up to receive email notifications, and that is how I found out about VOKLE.

While I enjoyed Huffington Post's Washington Bureau Chief, Dan Froomkin's, online live interview of Janine Wedel about her new book, Shadow Elite, I was even more impressed with the web application that they were using for this online event. Vokle has a smooth, crisp picture with a clean interface. The sounds are clear and full. There is a back channel that's easily viewed.

I learned there are some host safeguards for comments. You can see them before they go out, just in case there are any off topic participants. This is important to plan for ahead of time, because it's too late when they are there. I was in an online conference when someone arrived just to make off topic remarks and disrupt the session. It's very unsettling for both host and participants, so this is an excellent control feature.

I plan to use this new web application, VOKLE. How about you?

Other Reviews On VOKLE!

VOKLE Goes Public!

Vokle.com: Live Video Communication

More about Vokle's Free Web Conferencing Service

Vokle.com - Live Unmuted!

Friendly Friday: Organizing the Blog Roll

Wishing for a blog roll? Hoping to compile a list of blogs from friendly colleagues that you want to share with the world?

If you do, you know that it's always a work in progress. Sparking my action here, Amy Palko in Bye Bye Blogroll - Hello Links! explains how it quickly becomes a very long list on your blog page. You can organize them under one link where people can view and explore.

While you're at it, you can even provide a tiny blurb about each blog or website that you include in this link.

Check out my burgeoning Blog Roll.