School 2.0: What is the future of education?

Michigan REMC 12 Director Mike Oswalt shared an excellent PowerPoint on School 2.0 at http://techplan.edzone.net/TDM2006/DIDYOUKNOW.ppt that was recently shown at the Michigan Technology Directors meeting. (Originally posted to the TTW blog).

Children's Books: Free Online Resources

The Notebook section of the most recent issue of American Educator noted these two freely available sites which have children's books available. The International Children's Digital Library has online books in 38 languages. SillyBooks.net has animated books with audio, and includes corresponding puzzles, games, lesson plans and learning activities.

United States High School Sophomores: A Twenty-Two Year Comparison, 1980-2002

Using questionnaire and test data collected in 1980, 1992, and 2002, this report presents time series data on three cohorts of high school sophomores. The report presents information on the changing context of cohort demographics, family characteristics, school characteristics, and school experiences, after school activities, and future plans and expectations. Tested achievement is also presented with results in math from 1980 to 1990 and 2002, and results in reading from 1990 to 2002. (NCES Newsflash Service)

College Rankings Reformed

"COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES have the raw materials with which to build a better rankings system, but many institutions do not want to abandon the current model. As a result, students
rely on commercial guides that provide little useful information, according to a report (College Rankings Reformed) scheduled to be released today by a research group in Washington." From the Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 22, 2006

Education Sector decribes itself as an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan education policy think tank devoted to developing innovative solutions to the nation’s most pressing educational problems. Its founder is Andrew J. Rotherham, former director of the 21st Century Schools Project at the Progressive Policy Institute.

Educating School Teachers

A recent report, from the Education Schools Project (led by Directed by Arthur Levine,
who recently left the presidency of Teachers College, Columbia University to become president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation), concludes that "a majority of teacher education graduates are prepared in university-based programs that suffer from low admission and graduation standards." The Educating School Teachers report "provides an examination of the successes and failures of university-based teacher education programs, offers “criteria for excellence” on which to judge the quality of programs, and sets forth a comprehensive five-point plan for improving programs and changing teacher-education policy. The report identifies several model teacher education programs at the nation’s 1,206 university-based education schools."

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to WSU! I hope everyone had a restful, productive, relaxing, exhilarating summer!

We have a few new things to share for Fall 2006--let's take a look
A new library web portal specifically designed for our first-year students (but a good page for any undergraduate) http://www.lib.wayne.edu/fye/

An online Assignment Planner, to help students organize and manage library research assignments: http://www.lib.wayne.edu/planner

Even more selections of Drop-In Workshops, including RSS and Blogging, Using Google and EndNote http://www.lib.wayne.edu/services/instruction_tutorials/drop_in.php (Remember, these workshops are for everyone--students, staff AND faculty)

EndNote X has been released. You can download this newest version at http://computing.wayne.edu/software

A new online APA Style Guide, with lots of examples
http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/subject_guides/guide.php?id=164

And don't forget about our old favorites:

See what's new in the library's collection through the New Titles List http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/new_books/index.php

Use the GET IT button in the library catalog to have books paged for you and ready for pick-up at any library circulation desk.

Have a great semester!

New report examines alignment of high school, college and work

Closing the Expectations Gap 2006: An Annual 50-State Progress Report on the Alignment of High School Policies with the Demands of College and Work is a recently published report from Achieve.org, a "a bipartisan, non-profit organization that helps states raise academic standards, improve assessments and strengthen accountability to prepare all young people for postsecondary education, work and citizenship." Achieve's Board Members include Michigan's Governor, Jennifer Granholm.

This report examines progress states are making in closing the gaps between high school standards and requirements and postsecondary and workplace expectations, which were identified through a 50 State survey done by Achieve.org in December 2005.

The issue of K-12 and postsecondary/workplace gaps was also recently discussed in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (Powerful Forces Draw Academe Into the Fray 3/10/2006), which referenced the following additional reports on the topic.

A Nation at Risk (1983)
The Governance Divide: A Report on a Four-State Study on Improving College Readiness and Success (2005)
Betraying the College Dream (2003, Stanford)
School & College (Special Report, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2006)

Copyright law impede progress in Educational Technology

A recent report from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society explored the impact that copyright law provisions have on the use of digitial technology in education.

"Drawing on research, interviews, two participatory workshops with experts in the field, and the lessons drawn from four detailed case studies, the white paper identifies four obstacles as particularly serious ones:
* Unclear or inadequate copyright law relating to crucial provisions such as fair use and educational use;
* Extensive adoption of digital rights management technology to lock up content;
* Practical difficulties obtaining rights to use content when licenses are necessary;
* Undue caution by gatekeepers such as publishers or educational administrators.

The report is available online, and it titled The Digital Learning Challenge: Obstacles to Educational Uses of Copyrighted Material in the Digital Age

2005 Digest of Education Statistics Available

Announcement from the NCES Newsflash Service:
The 41st in a series of publications initiated in 1962, the Digest of Education Statistics provides a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest contains data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, and federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons. Some examples of highlights from the report include the following items.

--> Enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools rose 22 percent between 1985 and 2005. The fastest public school growth occurred in the elementary grades (prekindergarten through grade 8)
-->Public secondary school enrollment declined 8 percent from 1985 to 1990, but then rose 31 percent from 1990 to 2005, for a net increase of 20 percent.
-->The number of public school teachers has risen faster than the number of students over the past 10 years, resulting in declines in the pupil/teacher ratio.
-->Between 1994 and 2004, the number of full-time college students increased by 30 percent compared to an 8 percent increase in part-time students. During the same time period, the number of men enrolled rose 16 percent, while the number of women enrolled increased by 25 percent.

New Journal: Journal of evidence-based practices for schools

We have recently added a subscription to the Journal of evidence-based practices for schools. Please note that this journal is available in print only, it has not been made available online from the publisher. We currently have volume 6 (issues 1 & 2)in our collection in the Kresge Wing of Purdy/Kresge Library. (We are missing the most current issue, v.7 (1) Winter 2006, but have a request into the publisher for a replacement).

Fellowships in Child Development

The Foundation for Child Development is accepting applications for its Young Scholars Program. Eligible researchers will have earned their doctoral degrees within the last 15 years, and be full-time, faculty members of a college or university in the United States. Applicants must hold a Ph.D. or its equivalent in one of the behavioral and social sciences or in an allied professional field (e.g., public policy, public health, education, social work, nursing, medicine). Three to four fellowships of up to $150,000 for use over one to three years (maximum) will be awarded competitively. Please note tenure equivalent positions are not eligible for the fellowship.--Program description from the FCD website.

Search any library easy with WorldCat Online!

From The Chronicle of Education Wired Campus Blog:

The OCLC Online Computer Library Center, a nonprofit group, announced this week that it was making available to the public WorldCat’s search engine of library holdings. WorldCat, which is maintained by the library center, is a database of materials from 10,000 libraries worldwide. Previously, only library patrons could gain access to WorldCat’s search tool. Now available through WorldCat.org, the search tool also helps people locate the library nearest them that has the book, article, or video or audio recording they are looking for. "People are starting their searches on the Web rather than in the library, and that’s where we want to be," said Bob Murphy, a spokesman for the library center.—Andrea L. Foster

APA citation style for Dissertations from the ProQuest Databases

The APA style manual does not have an example of how to cite dissertations in the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. A representative from APA recently posted the following to an inquiry on the EBSS (Educational, Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarians) listserv.


"The ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database appears to include dissertations abstracted in Dissertation Abstracts International. If the reference you are citing was abstracted in DAI but obtained from ProQuest (similar to Examples 54 and 55 in the Publication Manual), I would probably add that information to the reference entry as well:

Gibson, G. (2006). Between voice and silence: Identity development in Black adolescent females (Doctoral dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo). Dissertation Abstracts International, 54, 100. Retrieved August 15, 2006, from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database.

If there is no DAI information available, then you could simply skip right to the retrieval information."

Citing Wikipedia: A policy for students?

Dr. Alan Liu from UC Santa Barbara, developed a policy for his students on the appropriateness of using Wikipedia as a resource for class assignments. His original posting, along with additional commentary, is available at Kairosnews: A Weblog for Discussing Rhetoric, Technology and Pedagogy.

ETS Poll: Americans See Math and Science as Key to U.S. Competitiveness

"In a major new opinion survey on education reform, a majority of adults, parents, high school teachers, administrators and college faculty believe that our nation's schools are coming up short in putting students on the path to compete for highly technical scientific and engineering jobs with young people from other countries and are going to have to challenge students more if America is to maintain its global economic edge."

"The results are from Keeping Our Edge: Americans Speak on Education and Competitiveness, ETS's sixth annual "Americans Speak" public opinion poll. The poll was conducted for ETS by Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican pollster David Winston." ETS Press Release

Teaching students about plagiarism: An internet solution to an internet problem

In this article from the latest issue of the online journal Innovate, Eleanour Snow from Univ. of South Florida generally discussed the problem of plagiarism in higher education, and describes how she developed and used an online tutorial as a proactive approach to the problem of plagiarism in her own classroom.

The Condition of Education 2006

"Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released The Condition of Education 2006. This annual report summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The 2006 report presents 50 indicators on the status and condition of education and a special analysis on international assessments. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available." NCES Newsflash Service

2005 science assessment National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

Results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2005 science assessment were just released, detailing national performance at grades 4, 8, and 12 and state performance for most states at grades 4 and 8.

National findings since the previous assessments in 1996 and 2000 show:

• 4th grade students scored higher than either previous year, and lower-performing students made the largest gains since 2000.
• 8th graders’ overall performance remained unchanged compared with either previous year; gains by lower-income students narrowed the gap since 2000.
• Scores for 12th graders remain unchanged since the last assessment, but are lower than in 1996. However, the White-Black gap has widened since 2000.

(NCES Newsflash Service)

What predicts achievement? Self-discipline or IQ?

An article published in the December 2005 issue of Psychological Science reports on a study of 140 8th grade students and predictors of final grades. The authors, from the Positive Psychology Center at U Penn, discuss their findings from the study that suggest that the "degree to which students practiced self-discipline" was twice as likely as IQ to predict final grades. The article, titled Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents, by Angela L. Duckworth and Martin E.P. Seligman, is available online thorough WSU in Psychological Science, v. 26, issue 12, page 939.
(Reported in AFT On Campus, May/June 2006.)

Michigan Online Learning Requirement from ESchool News Online

Read this article about Michigan's Online Learning Requirement, and check out eSchool News Online, a commercial publication that focuses on disseminating current news on education technology in all its aspects--from legislation and litigation, to case studies, to purchasing practices and new products.