K12 Education - Where is it heading?

There is a lot of discussion out there about K12 education - "it is outdated", "we are still teaching students to be citizens of the industrial world" and "we are not responding to the technology that is all around us."

It is hard to argue that the style of K12 education has changed very little.  Driven by enforced standardized testing, teachers lecture, write on whiteboards and drill in the same style that they did 20 years ago.  But today's world is very different and today's students are very different too.  Information is readily available and accessible at students' fingertips.  The teacher is no longer the sage on the stage and can be questioned and challenged at every step, but they still behave as though they are the only ones with the answers.

Schools need to become proactive in deciding their future, especially at the high school level where the regular brick and mortar building is quickly losing its value.  When anyone can grab their phone and instantly become researchers and experts on any subject they like, we need to be teaching students how to disseminate information, how to verify and analyze, how to problem solve and how to be a useful participant in today's information driven world and workplace.  Instead, we are still placing way too much emphasis on teaching things that students just do not really need to know anymore because they carry a pocket encyclopedia with them everywhere.

Distance learning has been with us for decades but now it is being pushed to the forefront of education in the world's demand for convenience of life.  Society expects to get what it wants, when it wants and education is becoming a commodity that is being packaged in every shape and form.  Whether we agree that is an effective form of education or not, it is what the people want.  They do not want to be tied to regulated class times and they do not want to learn according to the whim of one person.

And yet, the K12 school continues to teach in the way it always has, expecting students to show up every day for class, to sit and be lectured to, to do their homework and repeat the process every day till graduation.  Rural schools are steadily losing students - many because parents have to move to the cities for work, but many others to home schools and online schools because the regular school is no longer serving the needs of their consumers.

In order to survive, high schools are going to have to reevaluate their whole structure.  If students can get information anywhere, why are we forcing them to come to a building to get it.  The flipped classroom model touches on this, let students ingest information at home and then making the classroom and interactive space where students work on projects and get one-on-one attention from the teacher. The blended course also provides the benefits of allowing for students to learn material at their own pace, in their own style and then providing face-to-face time with teachers for feedback and interactivity.

So, what if a high school became a tutoring and social center instead of a regimented typical high school?  Students could learn subject matter at home and come into the school at their convenience for extra support, to work on projects or to participate in extra-curricular activities.  Not only would this allow for freedom of scheduling, but would seriously lighten the financial burden on the smaller schools that are constantly struggling to provide enough teachers to cover every subject at every grade level. Teachers could alternate between being on call at the school for support and interacting with the online modules from the comfort of their homes.  Students could come in as needed or connect with teachers via video if transportation was an issue.

A few high schools have already started programs like this, allowing students to work from home but requiring them to come in once a week for some face-to-face time.  This blend of both online and face-to-face seems to have better results than pure online classes as high school students need some monitoring, some real feedback and some time to interact with teachers and peers.

Yes, blended learning is the new catch word but if the K12 high school wants to survive, it had better start taking it seriously!

Email on Mountain Lion

I just love my Macbook Pro.  But recently I have been struggling with Mail continually freezing up. The only thing I found was a suggestion from Apple to delete out emails from my Gmail accounts Really Apple, I have to delete email to make my Mail app work correctly? - this does not seem like a realistic option in this day and age.  And yes, I have cleared caches, rebuilt mailboxes and totally rebuilt the app from scratch to no avail.

So, I finally started looking at alternative mail apps.  I needed something that could talk to my Exchange account and handle two Gmail accounts without freezing up.  Turns out that was not as easy as I thought it would.  I spent a week or so going through app after app and thought I would share thoughts about the two winners of my research!

Postbox - while Postbox does not support Exchange, it does support Imap and I was able to connect to my Exchange account and add both my Gmail accounts.  I have been using Postbox for about a month now and I cannot believe how much my stress level has gone down.  No more sitting on the phone looking at the spinning beach ball waiting for Mail to let me look at an email that I needed to reply to a question on the phone!!  Postbox has some great features - Quick reply right from the email - why hasn't Mail ever had that feature?  And the ability to search just attachments!  I love that feature.  Postbox really has improved my life immensely!!  The only thing I don't love in Postbox is the Search feature - you have to use full words/names and hit enter to search.  Also, there is a strange little bug that would randomly change the sender on an email to one specific contact - not sure if I just had a corrupted database or if others have seen that too.  But it just takes a click on the Home button to fix.

So, you ask, if I love Postbox so much, why are there two winners?

Well, just today, Airmail announced that it had an update that added Exchange support.  Airmail is one slick app and just pretty to look at!  I had tried it a while back and really liked the app (enough to pay a few bucks for it) but I could never get my Exchange account to connect.  Well, today I fired it up, added Exchange and have used this app for the rest of the day.  It also has Quick Reply and the Search searches as you type.  I miss the attachment search but it is so speedy and efficient, I think I will stick with it for now.

You can't really go wrong with either of these apps.  They are not free but they are pretty cheap and well worth the investment.  If you are having trouble with Apple Mail, take the plunge and try something new - I know I am so glad I did!

UPDATE - still some issues with Exchange on Airmail so am back to Postbox but eagerly awaiting a fix from Airmail!

Samsung Galaxy S4 - what???

Well, this is a day I never thought I would see!   I have jumped ship and bought a Samsung Galaxy S4!  I really kind of shocked myself especially after IOS 7 which I really think is a great upgrade.  But after several frustrations and having to help my husband set up his new Droid device and then playing with my daughter's S3, I called Sprint, cancelled my 5S order and went to the Sprint store and got the S4.

Here are my initial thoughts, what I miss about the iPhone and what I like about the S4!

Ok, yes, I miss my familiar Apple interface, ease of syncing everything with my Mac and stuff like that. The Samsung has taken me two days and I am still not totally set up where I want to be but this is what I have accomplished so far!

Music - syncing my iTunes to Google with Music Manager and using Music Play on the Galaxy - works great - actually better because I have access to my entire library and can select what to store on my phone without having to be connected to my computer.
Photos - using Dropbox's automatic picture upload on the Galaxy and then an automator script to automatically dump anything in that folder into iPhoto.  A few minutes to set up but working great.
Reminders - using Reminder for iCloud to sync my reminders (this was the only thing I have paid for so far!)
Do Not Disturb - the S4 has Blocked Notifications - works the same way only a little better because you can create a custom list instead of just being able to select favorites as exemptions to the silent rule.
iMessage - found MightyText - works the same way but adds some great features like a notification on my Mac of incoming phone calls.  And I get all my text messages there, not just Apple ones!

But what I really like about the Galaxy that has me not regretting my decision so far!!!  (I am an Apple lover so it is hard for me to endorse their competitor!)

1. The keyboard!  Wow - there is a number row above the letters - no more switching screens just to put a number in a password or email address.  And Swype is just amazing - I have no idea how it makes sense of my wild swipes but it does!
2. Word predictions - it used to drive me crazy on the iPhone that every time I went to log in somewhere I had to type out my entire email or username.  Galaxy pops it up as a suggestion as soon as I start typing, one click and I am done - love it!
3. Widgets and layout - finally I can put icons wherever I want!!!  I used to jailbreak just for this feature - five pages packed with rows of icons is aggravating.  The Galaxy lets you mix and match widgets and icons so each page looks different and of course if you pinch in on any screen,  you get thumbnails of every page and just touch to go to the one you want.
4. Split screen - I can have two apps open at once - how cool is that?!
5. FREEDOM to download whatever apps I want from anywhere!!  Yes, that is huge!

Battery life seems about as bad as the iPhone but I have been using it a lot the first few days, installing apps, setting up and just playing so I will see when I get down to normal usage.
And finally the size of the phone - it is huge compared to the iPhone!  This is bad and this is good - I still haven't figured out how I am going to carry it, when to put it half the time, etc.  However, I actually love having more screen space and you can get a lot more done with the larger screen.  Less zooming in and out of webpages etc.

Overall, I think I am really going to like this phone.  Once I get over my old inherent dislike for the Android operating system (based on the older versions of the OS), I hope to be more productive with this device and that is what really matters to me!

Sorry, Apple, I do love IOS7 but your continual controls and limitations have sent me over to the dark side...and I am not sure I will return!