There's An App For That

New Milford High School’s digital journalism class, which operates The Lance, the school’s online news source, is proud to announce the release of their very own free application.  The application is available for Apple and Android operating systems.

The Lance reports on news in and around New Milford’s community on a weekly basis.  The students of digital journalism partnered with Crescerance to develop an app that is easily accessible and touches on the features of the news site that students and residents of the community use the most.  The application is an easy way for New Milford residents to keep up-to-date on the mumblings of the heart of the community -- it’s students.  

Once users download this free app to a smart device, they can peruse the different features easily, with one-touch access to news, photos, the school calendar, The Lance’s blog and the complete athletics schedule.  Users can also take a picture with their device that is watermarked with the news source’s logo, which can then be sent to The Lance for publication on the site with credits to the photographer.

Additionally, there is easy access to weekly polls, staff biographies, and users can even contact the staff with leads and comments.  Perhaps the best feature of the app is the ability for users to add sports events to their calendars from the app, as well as receive push notifications about updates to the site or meeting/event cancellations.

This is a revolution in high school news reporting.  With readers from as far away as Australia, the staff of The Lance is finding that the application brings them that much closer to their readers and followers, bringing 21st century news reporting to their doorsteps at the touch of a finger.

Please feel free to download our app and let us know what you think so that I can share your thoughts with our students.

E-learning and Canned Instruction: A Contradiction in Terms?

The following is a guest post by Laura DeSena.

Not all online education programs are the same. Currently, most conversations on the topic on online education are oversimplified.  Complexities must be addressed on this topic for a true critical assessment of online education to actually happen.

Image credit: http://teamblearningmodalities.blogspot.com/

The first significant distinction that must be considered for the conversation about online learning to be valid is that between synchronous and asynchronous instruction.  In synchronous or live online instruction, students and teachers log on together in the virtual classroom. This is pure -- unfiltered by reflection -- interaction and in this live setting the social element of learning is not compromised.
 The exceptional moment occurs in meaningful inspiration and encouragement in the timber and inflection of a voice, in the subtleties of harmony of thought process in synchronous time and the authentic epiphany.

The teacher cannot be factored out of the equation of learning. Teaching in the moment is quite different from the packaged/canned asynchronous learning environment -- particularly in terms of critical discourse. Canned/pre-packaged curriculum with asynchronous online education does not embrace reflection in the way that Web 2.0 tools – like collaborative sites such as discussion boards  and online presentation tools – do and curation sites  -- like Pinterest -- do.  Synchronous fosters expression and  non- pre-packaged asynchronous encourages reflection – both elements of the learning process are necessary ones. . Oversimplification of the definition of online learning is not helpful to anyone and it seems that online learning has a negative connotation that it does not deserve.

Laura DeSena is a Teacher of English at West Milford High School (NJ).   She is also the Founder of Innovations in Online Education, Inc.  You can check out her blog HERE. 

With Students Lagging Globally in Science, the U.S. Looks to Inspire an Untapped Resource

The following is a guest post by Westfield Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Paul Pineiro.

Underlying the lagging performance of U.S. students in global assessments in math and science is another troubling statistic: According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, fifteen-year-old girls in 65 countries generally outperformed boys worldwide, but in the United States, boys outperformed girls in quantitative studies. We are left scratching our heads and wondering why it’s only our female students that “can’t do science.”

Image credit: http://www.psmag.com/news/a-new-view-of-why-women-shun-science-careers-19392/

The fact is they can, but culturally, we may be dissuading them from doing so. Consider that even for those female students who do pursue college studies in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) they are more likely to change majors than their male counterparts, despite relative success. "Women drop out of engineering programs with higher average grades than the men who stay in engineering programs," reported CEO of the Society of Women Engineers, Betty Shanahan, at last summer at U.S. News STEM Summit 2012. And of the women who do earn STEM degrees, the U.S Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration shows their typical career paths diverge substantially from men. “About 40 percent of men with STEM college degrees work in STEM jobs, whereas only 26 percent of women with STEM degrees work in STEM jobs” (August 2011). 

While girls in most other nations thrive in science-related studies, there is a disconnect for them in the U.S. This drop-off of interest in STEM subjects among young female students is typically attributed to how our culture views women who demonstrate an interest or ability in the STEM fields. In subtle but impactful ways, our culture pushes away young women from STEM fields by often painting aspiring engineers as geeks with thick glasses and curious sense of fashion (see Amy in “The Big Bang Theory”). “One of the things that we can do to help disband that stereotype,” says executive director of technical research at AT&T Labs, Alicia Abella, in an interview with U.S. News and World Report, “is to really expose these young girls and young women to role models who are in the field to make them recognize that, in fact, you don't have to fit that stereotype.” 

For this reason there is an all-call out to U.S. industry and educators at all levels to undo the stereotypes that could be costing the country some of its best and brightest future innovators. Young STEM-inclined females need role models, and to this end, “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” was established in 2009 to promote their connection with accomplished women in the STEM fields.

This year, “Introduce a girl to Engineering Day 2013” is dedicated to the memory and legacy of Sally Ride, physicist and first American woman in space. Here is a list that includes links to the accomplishments of Sally Ride and eleven other women and organizations with whom we should want young, STEM-inclined female students to be introduced.  Introduce a Girl to these STEM Role Models:

• Sally Ride, first American woman to fly in space
• The Girl Scouts of America
• Gigliola Staffilani, MIT Professor of Mathematics
• Molly Hoppe, Aviation Engineer 
• Cora B. Marrett, deputy director of the National Science Foundation 
• Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider, Co-winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, 2009 "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"
• NASA
• Smith College Engineering Students
• The Women Researchers of AT&T Labs
• Anna Park, Executive Director and Board Member at Great Minds in STEM 
• The Connect a Million Minds Initiative

If that was not enough here is a list to 100 more.

# # #

Sources: 

Hopkins, Katy, “How to Encourage Women to Consider STEM Majors,” U.S. World News and Report.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Sheehy, Kelsey, “STEM Disconnect Leaves Women, Minorities Behind;” U.S. World News and Report.

U.S Department of Commerce, Economics ad Statistics Administration

Bio notes: 

Paul Pineiro is the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction in Westfield Public Schools (Union County, NJ) and a “Generation STEM” enthusiast. You can follow Paul on Twitter at @paulpineiro.

Students Discover Tackk For Creating Online Reports

It's no secret that educators are always on the lookout for cool new methods to help engage their students and save time.  A new trend has emerged as teachers have discovered fun and creative ways to incorporate free online tools to accomplish both of those goals, and the value of such assignments is only becoming more apparent.  Recently, a new service has grown in popularity in schools, which gives students the ability to quickly and easily create posts very similar to blogs, but without any of the complexity or fuss of specialized training.  It's called Tackk, and both students and teachers are loving it.

With Tackk, students can produce slick, professional looking reports on any subject in literally a matter of minutes, allowing them to focus on learning the content rather than worrying about the form in which it's presented.  Without having to create an account, students have access to easy, professional-quality text, image, and video integration, which makes for a much richer online experience than was previously possible with this little headache.

Teachers have used Tackk to both supplement, and in some cases replace, more traditional projects like posters and folders.  In addition to being quick, user-friendly, and elegant, it can also serve as a valuable introduction to web-based publishing for students of all ages.  Some teachers have assigned projects on musicians, others on states, and others still on career aspirations.  

How would you use Tackk in your classroom?