• UDCapture: presented by UD Media Services

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There’s been lots to write about in the past few weeks, and not enough time to write about it all. I’ll have to play catch up next week sometime when things will be quiet around here. I’ve been super busy this week teaching a “Robotics for Middle Schoolers” class at the local high school. It’s a college class that they earn a unit of credit for. I wanted to take 15 kids, the VP said we had to up the max to 20 kids, and I ended up with 26 because I couldn’t say no to kids at the door with their moms in tow, paperwork in hand. It’s been an insane pace keeping up with them and keeping them challenged, with ages ranging from 10-13. I’ve noticed quite a difference in attention span and analytical ability between the 10-11 year olds and the 12-13 year olds. I’ve also had to deal with a number of social issues that don’t usually crop up in my college classes, such as learning to play nice together and learning to share. There are a couple of kids in particular that have really challenged me to find a way to get them involved because I don’t want to be another one of those teachers that writes them off as a “problem” child. I’ve had to deal with a variety of parents on a variety of issues, all resolved well, I think.

Aside from the social concerns, the class itself is going quite well. I’ll have to write up in more detail exactly what we’ve been doing, because we’re doing it again in July, but for now, suffice to say, it’s been quite a success. I promised the kids a pizza party and movie (Transformers, of course!) on Friday if they complete their journals satisfactorily tomorrow. It’s been a good experience to work with this age group and it has really pushed my boundaries as a teacher. I’m totally exhausted, physically and mentally, but in a great way!

We had lots of tech problems yesterday but finally got started. I asked the kids if they remembered me from their trip to the college a few weeks ago and they said “yeah, you are Mrs. Emilee, Rachel, and Matt’s Mom!”

Stuff like this is AWESOME! This is why I teach

Occupation Professor of Computer Science, Cerro Coso Community College

Previous board experience currently Site Council member & secretary, Inyokern Elementary School

Areas of expertise/contributions you feel you can make:

As a college professor, one of the biggest problems I see from students coming out of the traditional public school system is the inability to engage in self-motivated and self-directed learning. Their ability to problem solve and think creatively are skills that are often sadly lacking. Education is no longer about memorizing facts for a test. Students need to be better prepared for 21st century careers that demand they know how to find, interpret, analyze, synthesize, create, and utilize information and teachers need to be better supported to help students prepare for careers that may not even exist yet.

I believe my background experiences and education will help me share this vision with the Charter School community. I spent several years as a K12 substitute teacher. I have homeschooled my older children. I have been a community college technology professor teaching both students and faculty for over 11 years. I have participated in educational outreach activities to the K-12 students in our area. I have an MA in educational technology from Pepperdine University. Most importantly, however, I am a parent who cares about the education my children receive and I have a desire to help make that the best possible experience for them and classmates.

Why you are interested in serving on the RCS board:

As the mother of five and stepmother of three, ranging in ages from 2-20, I have a long-running interest in the educational system my children are involved in. I also have a strong belief in community service and feel this is a place I can make a positive contribution. I have been impressed with what I have seen at Charter this year and would like to help guide the direction of the school in the years to come. I am excited about the possibility of working with the students, teachers and staff to help them define and realize their vision for what this school can become!

“It’s a very exciting time for learning. It’s the death of education. But it’s the dawn of learning.”

On twitter, you can save posts you especially like to a favorites list. Here are some that have caught my attention recently.

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught.”

~ Oscar Wilde 1890

I got an email tonight asking for approval of a computer literacy course outline revision. I’m slated to teach a section of this class in the fall. In past discussions, I’ve expressed a strong opinion that this class should focus on basic concepts and not specific software, something that has been just as strongly opposed. The revision included a reference to said specific software, so I felt it necessary to respond. I didn’t want to just toss out an unfounded opinion however. I sent out a tweet for help…

Almost instantly, I got what I was looking for, from Seattle, Ridgecrest, and Southern California. Read from the bottom up:

All of that gave me what I needed to write this:

It looks ok, although I would like to see the second SLO revised.

B. recognize and use industry standard application programs in the Windows operating system environment to create and edit introductory word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software files. This will be measured by projects and scored using a rubric.

This is a basic concepts class that is only 1 unit and is usually taught over a short period of time. I believe it is important to expose students to the basic concepts of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software in a way that will give them a good foundation for understanding *any* version of those programs they come across, not just one geared toward a specific operating system or branded from a specific company. I assume “industry standard” is referring to Microsoft Office, although I may be wrong. Although Office and Windows OS programs are widespread, they are by no means the only options available, and locking students into a specific application does a disservice to them in the real world. Increasingly, other alternatives are being used, if not in Ridgecrest, then definitely elsewhere in the US and worldwide, including Croatia, South Korea, Turkey, India, France, and Brazil. Japan and Finland are seriously considering the move in an effort to “rely less on a single vendor IT software infrastructure”. The states of Maine and Indiana (among others), and a number of major school districts, including San Diego and Portland, Oregon are migrating to open source. The overwhelming trend in Europe and major parts of Asia is in the direction of open source software. Several major American companies like Novell and IBM are staunch supporters of open source alternatives to proprietary software.

Students, especially literacy level learners, are better able to gain a solid understanding of the underlying principles when introduced to basic concepts in a way that is clear and concise. I’m not suggesting that we ignore or neglect Microsoft Office. We have several series of classes (10 or more classes, if I am not mistaken) that will allow students who are interested in specific applications to learn more about specific software. I’m suggesting that the Literacy class is not the place to force exposure, based on the computer fluency level of the students. Those students will benefit from the general understand they have gained in the Literacy class and be able to transfer their understanding to any office application software they may encounter. Therefore, I would recommend that this SLO be revised to read:

B. recognize and use introductory word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software files. This will be measured by projects and scored using a rubric.

Debby Kilburn

references:

Japan http://www.linuxworld.com/newsletters/linux/2007/0507linux2.html
Croatia http://www.linux.com/feature/56376
South Korea http://www.news.com/2100-7344-5084811.html
Brazil http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4471963
Turkey http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7276/469
India http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39205447,00.htm
France http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=7687
Maine http://www.maine.gov/mlte/2006details.htm
Indiana http://www.crn.com/software/192201386
San Diego http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=46376&CFID=3985188&CFTOKEN=71198452
Novell http://www.novell.com/collateral/4621400/4621400.html
IBM http://www-03.ibm.com/linux/opensource/

What a cool example of the power of distributed social networks and instant communication!

TO: State Board of Education
RE: Ridgecrest Charter School

We are writing this letter in support of the continued accreditation of Ridgecrest Charter School. As the parents of eight children and as an educator, we have been very happy with the education our children are receiving at RCS. The teachers have consistently worked hard to provide a solid educational environment where standards are taught and supported and academic outcomes are rigorously pursued while staying mindful of the best interest of each individual child. The administration maintains open communication with parents and students, and it appears that the faculty is well supported in their efforts to teach our children.

We are aware that we live in an educational environment driven by standardized testing as the major measure of academic progress. However, we are also very aware of the failings of such comprehensive testing measures to accurately and effectively indicate the individual learning that takes place or to describe the learning environment that is created to facilitate such progress. Standardized testing does not take into account a whole host of factors that affect learning outside the classroom walls. It would be remiss to close the doors of a school based on data that is not entirely current and is questionably accurate.

As a college professor, the students I see that come from the homeschool and charter communities in this area consistently have a higher level of academic skills, including the ability to engage in self-motivated and self-directed learning. Their ability to problem solve and think creatively are skills that are often sadly lacking in their traditional school counterparts.

Education does not have a one-size fits all solution. School choice is essential to the well-being of an educational system and revoking this charter would limit that choice in this area. We would like to urge the Board to continue to support the Ridgecrest Charter School. Please feel free to contact us for a more detailed discussion of our experiences with this school. We would be happy to discuss our experiences further.

Sincerely,

Deborah Kilburn
Professor, Computer Science
Cerro Coso Community College

Dr. R. Steven Kurti
Research Physicist
China Lake NAWS

(20 mins/session * 77 5th graders/session * 3 sessions in a row) + (legos + robots) + candy = [you do the math!]

It happened again. Over 200 5th graders invaded the college. With a little help, I tossed legos all over a classroom, showed a few robots, talked about sensors, and told them to go to college. My favorite quote of the day happened when I was trying out an object lesson on sensors. I bumped into a desk, trying to get them to figure out what I have that should have stopped me from doing that (sense of touch, of course). The idea was to extend that idea to the fact that robots use sensors to gather data about their environment and make decisions based on that. They seemed to be having a hard time coming up with the answer, but finally, when I said something like “what sense was I NOT using” one kid said “COMMON SENSE!” LOL. awesome

Kids need to know early on that college is something they can do. I love helping them see that it is a possibility and that it can be fun.