Annotated SCA1 References:
American Academy of Pediatrics: Council on School Health. (2012, December 31). The crucial role of recess in school. Pediatrics. 2013;131;183. doi:10.1542/peds.2012-2993
As the title suggests, The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) examines the many aspects of why recess is important for growing children, and they touch on the growing trend of some schools actually getting rid of the activity altogether. Also, the AAP steps into the reasons why recess and time spent in play can help a child’s performance cognitively, socially, emotionally, and academically by citing various sources into the research conducted by many attributed organizations. They close by summarizing easy to follow recommendations that any school may follow with ease, and to use recess as a compliment to physical education courses for their structure and discipline. The people that would have the most need for this article would be anyone teaching in a K-8 grade range because these are the grades that recess is most used as an activity. Since the article is brief, to the point, and an overall easy read, it would be a benefit for anyone to read that is interested in the benefits of outdoor play whether it is structured or unstructured. As mentioned earlier it does touch on the current issue of schools abolishing their recess programs altogether to make time for more in class work from the students. Also, they discuss the issues that structured play may not be as beneficial as unstructured play when it comes to encouraging innovation and imagination from a child.
In this article the American Institutes for Research (AIR) takes the reader on a complete run through of research that was conducted on 255 sixth-grade students from four elementary schools that were involved with outdoor education programs. Also, AIR uses scientific method in the research to conduct the experiment, so if someone else wanted to conduct an evaluation of their own school and measure the effects that outdoor schooling has on their students, they could use this study as a sort of template. Added in the article is prior studies that have been conducted on the effects that outdoor educational programs have had on the positive outcomes of increasing the effectiveness of interpersonal skills, attitudes toward the environment, self-esteem, group work, and the overall independence of the children. The research itself is conducted via teachers, parents, students, and researchers own observations and from questionnaires given to the parties involved with the study.
The audience that this would be targeted at would be anyone pursuing any topics involving the benefits of outdoor play, and those whom are looking for ways of increasing the aforementioned skills. The article was useful because it helped focus on actual quantitative data that is needed is necessary for arguing the point of the necessity of outdoor play and educating children into the importance toward the environment. Finally, it addresses the current issues of the collapse of students getting involved with not only their local environment, but the environments elsewhere. Also, it highlights the individualistic approach toward a student’s learning and how they learn.
Ashman, B., Bartels, T., Lanuti, E., Lawler, J., & Sackler, M. (Producers) & Sackler, M. (Director). (2010). The lottery. United States: Great Curve Films.
Despite what the title of the film suggests the film is not about winning a massive amount of money in the lottery, but it is about winning an educational experience. The film follows a few parents and their children on their quest to getting into some of the well-known and sometimes controversial charter schools. The film also touches on what a charter school is and why they must conduct a lottery for the students to get into the school. Also, the film looks into the difficulties and central lying issues that have come up in the charter school movement. Anyone that is interested in the charter school movement would be interested in this documentary for the mere fact that it gives you a window into why parents are on the verge of disparity when it comes to finding a high quality education for their young students. The film has been useful in many of my writings and research because it offers statistics that are backed up by facts and research, and it implicates what other public schools could do in order to improve their own schools. As stated earlier, this film engages the viewer in the disparate viewpoints that some individuals have against the charter school movement versus the reasons that the movement towards these accountable schools has been necessary.
Balmford, A., Clegg, L., Coulson, T., & Taylor, J. “Why Conservationists Should Heed Pokémon.” Science, 295(5564), 2367-2367, 2002.
In this article by Science Magazine, the authors discuss a survey that was conducted on primary school students to test their knowledge of local, natural species and their knowledge of “pokemon” species. The results are grim picture of the knowledge that more students know about something man-made and out of imagination than they know about the world right outside their door. Parents of young children would take this article to heart in finding that maybe their child needs more time unplugged. This is a mildly important study because it does highlight the fact that more someone knows about the natural world the more they will care and look out for it, but this can be highlighted in many of the other resources listed here. It does; however, touch on the diversity of knowledge that children do possess and that we learn what we are interested in, so if can ignite that interest towards what’s outside our door then maybe their knowledge of species will be more than just 151 species of original Pokémon.
Braga, B., Cannold, M., Druyan, A., & MacFarlane, S. (Executive Producures). Hanich, L. & Holtzman, S. (Producers). Braga, B., Druyan, A., & Pope, B. (Directors). (2014). Cosmos: A spacetime odyssey. United States: Cosmos Studios & Fuzzy Door Productions.
How can we teach science and keep and entire audience on the edge of their seat? Get astrophysicist/science rockstar Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Fox’s Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, and through them into the compelling lessons of Carl Sagan and you have got yourself a show that teaches and entertains. In the show, Tyson takes you on a ride on the ship of the imagination and sends you into many areas of the natural world and all of spacetime. He makes it intriguing by highlighting science’s pioneers and telling the stories of the major implications that they had on the world. Of course he follows in the footsteps of Sagan by strengthening the importance of learning more about the environment and to always remain curious and non-bias. Audiences of the former Cosmos series that aired on PBS will like this one because they can now share the stories of their time with the kids of this time. The series was not necessarily important to the final thesis paper in providing quotes, but it was import in providing ideas, and harnessing that curiosity to learn more about environmental education so I may teach it to others. Not only does the series highlight the importance of the current issues of burning fossil fuels and becoming stewards of our environment, but it implicates ideas in pedagogy that some people learn by the stories they hear. It addresses current issues that people are needing to be more educated about “real” science and scientific methods if we are to solve some of the aforementioned issues.
In the article, Online Textbooks Moving into Schools, Washington Post reporter Emma Brown reports on the various schools moving toward the idea of fully integrating e-readers/tablet PCs into the classrooms. She interviews many teachers and administrators into their ideas and thoughts to going fully digital, and needless to say there is mixed reviews. Some teachers are found to like the simplicity and the ease of use; while some are concerned about the costs of the devices and the idea that some of the underprivileged students will not be able to access their text outside the classroom. Also, some of the students are relieved that they get to use the technology that they have already grown up around, and that they do not have to carry several pounds of text on their back. The audience that Brown directs the article toward is anyone who has questions about the benefits and the faults of going completely digital in the classroom. I found the article to be useful when looking at the technology aspects that schools must think about in this growing age of information. Also, I found it useful because it does not get the insights of researchers and scientific findings, but I get the findings of the people that actually have to use it and put it to use every day. The article itself gives the reader alternate points of view, and gives them the idea that they should weigh their options before looking into this technological endeavor.
Bucklin-Sporer, A. & Pringle, R.K. (2010). How to grow a school garden: A complete guide for parents and teachers. [Kindle Edition]. Portland, OR: Timber Press.
In this highly referenced, and hard to put down guide gives advice to building, maintaining, and getting people involved in a school garden, and gives the reader a step-by-step process in getting grants, tools, planning, and even delicious recipes of what the school can do with their harvest. It opens by giving the reader a brief history of school garden, and the benefits of creating such a hospitable place for all students. Also, it touches on examples of lessons that can be taught in the classroom and the standards that are relevant to those lessons. Audiences that are concerned about some of the misconceptions when it comes to creating a school garden will find this book as a great guide to acquiring all the “tricks of the trade”. This reading helps bolster the information that was presented in the overall thesis, and helped by giving more information into the standards involve thereto. Finally, it helps investigate the current issues into the complexities of the standards movement and shows that the standards and nature can work together and not oppose each other.
Education policy experts Lindsey Burke and Jennifer Marshall undercut some of the issues that have arisen out to of the standards movement and address some of the faults and circumstances made by the federal government involved in the movement. Also, they address some misconceptions that have been argued in the push for national standards and testing by negating ideas that standard help create more competitive students, that parents are fully aware of what their children need academically in order to succeed, and the idea that state standards would be improved because of national standards. The article itself is intended for parties interested in the political side to education especially when it comes to standards and the views of the common core. Also, it appears to be useful to anyone seeking to find an alternative viewpoint to the standards movement that is non-bias and well-researched. Finally, the article addresses disparate views that parents and the community should be involved more in the decisions and the implementation of national standards to education, and not just accept a point of view that is given with “good intentions”. Research, review, and question is an overall feeling one gets when reading this article.
Bussey, M., Inayatullah, S., & Milojevic, I. (Eds.). (2008). Alternative educational futures: Pedagogies for emergent worlds. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
One thing that this book does not suggest in education is keeping things the same way and go on teaching like we have been for years. No, the many authors in this book give the reader many variants on how we should go about approaching education in the future. They give ideas that focus around sustainability, individualized learning, and advancing the education of teachers and transforming them from being stagnant in their curriculum to being powerhouses of information, mentorship, and in some cases philosophers. This book provided many ideas toward some of the central ideas that ruled the paper in rethinking how education is and how it should and can be. Any teacher with an open mind should look toward this book as a guide to areas on which they can change and improve their curriculum when looking into any subject. One current issue that the book touches on is the disparate points of view seen in how schools and universities are shaped and how they simply just teach so that students can get a job, and that they are declining in teaching students how to think.
In this article Education Director for the Goldwater Institute Jonathan Butcher explains how the Common Core standards and charter schools mix as well as oil and water. He addresses key areas into the Common Core that some charter schools may not follow or have proper instruction when it comes to the curriculum. He also interviews people on both sides of the debate, and gets into reasons for the debate to begin with. To people who are interested in the debate of using the Common Core in a charter school curriculum this article is for you. But, overall the article was mildly helpful toward the SCA1 thesis mainly because it helps identify further issues when it comes to the big picture that the Common Core wishes to set forth. It does; however, set forth current issues pertaining to schools carrying out the standards of Common Core and if they still should be incorporated in charter schools at all because of their promise of flexibility.
This is a highly detailed look into weights and standards that the California State Board of Education has set for books that are used in the classroom for a variety of subjects. Also, it provides the reader with information into why the weight of a textbook is needed as viable information in their schools. Finally, the report recognizes the scope of the problem of injuries that are related to book bags and backpacks that may occur inside and outside the classroom. This study is recommended mainly for parents of students who feel their child has too much weight on their backs to begin with, and anyone concerned for the overall physical health of students as it relates to back pain and issues kids may run into. This article was helpful when strengthening ideas for reasons to why we would want to integrate more technology in the classroom based on the idea that a tablet PC can hold all the student’s books with very minimal weight, and injury. But, it does still look at the current issues of the pros and cons of using the aforementioned technology and assessing if the classic textbook has become obsolete for more than one reason.
Chilcott, L. (Producer) & Guggenheim, D. (Director) (2010). Waiting for “superman”. United States: Walden Media.
Guggenheim’s “Waiting for ‘Superman’” is a must see by anyone that is in any sector of schooling, not just charter schools. In the film, the viewer follows Guggenheim as he interviews various people that are involved in the charter school movement and in the overall public education sectors. Also, he looks at the statistics that are really going on with our public schools, and investigates why there are such terms as “drop-out factories”, “academic sinkholes”, and “the dance of the lemons”. If you are looking for a happy ending, Guggenheim portrays that the only way to get one is to get involved with your school and demand the highest of standards for all schools, not just a select few. This film was useful to the overall thesis because it highlights what great schools do and what terrible schools don’t do. It helped me see that there are not always bad schools, but bad teachers as well, and it is our job to demand accountability. The film mainly highlights the disparate points of view that are shared for the charter school movement and for those that are against the change for accountable schools.
Dewitt’s lecture at this TEDTalk was one that I hope every teacher gets an opportunity to view. How can we get students interested in the subject matter? Tell them a story. This is what DeWitt recommends all teachers do in all subjects to make the subject not as boring. He also highlights the illusion that everything that you teach has to sound technical or else it is not “official” but, after listening to his sample lesson he gives the viewer find that there is barely any “technical” jargon in it, but learning still occurs. He gives the idea of storytelling because a storyteller can relate the information so well to their emotions. Students and teachers alike will enjoy his talk, and even parents could use this way of thinking to get their child interested in scholarly subjects. This lecture was one of those ideas that stayed with me as I wrote the thesis because it let me think about the other ways we can teach our students, and not simply with notes, lectures, and labs. The idea DeWitt delivers helps look at students through diverse eyes and recognizing that we all do not learn in the aforementioned ways, and that telling a story could be another tool in the teaching toolbox.
Egan, K. (2008). The Future of Education: Reimagining our schools from the ground up. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Kieran Egan’s future is found to be the same future that the previously mention Tyler DeWitt’s looks like, a future of teachers that are storytellers. Egan examines the current methods that are used to plug and chug away at reading and listening to lectures, and completing traditional tests of knowledge. One of the staggering ideas that Egan highlights is the fact that words on a page, in a library, or on the computer are simply “squiggles” that we have come to interpret, and interpreting these “squiggles” is not the root of knowledge. He discusses storytelling and using philosophic understanding as tools to be used in a cognitive toolbox for imaginative education. He then tells the story of education as he hypothesizes teachers using these tools and advocating for them in the future throughout 60 year span.
I would recommend the audience for this book be one with an open mind and one willing to try new ideas that link a lesson to the student’s emotions. This book carried out one of the driving subjects into the future curriculum in the overall thesis, so its usefulness was not only unmatched, but it also ignited the idea to further explore this vision. Just like DeWitt’s conversation at the TED conference, Egan looks into the fact that all students are diverse and they learn differently and want to learn different things, and that the drive toward standardization may lead to a diminished sense of imagination.
Eyer, D., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R. M. (2003). Einstein never used flashcards: How our children really learn–and why they need to play more and memorize less. United States: St. Martin’s Press.
There was a reason why we associate the name Einstein with being smart because he was without a doubt one of the smartest people of his time. Why? Because he was encouraged by his parents to do things that interested him and maintained his curiosity throughout his lifetime. In this book, the authors address many different ways to awaken this same curiosity in our children with many easy to follow techniques for all the stages children go through. They also address issues that children may be “learning” wrong when popular flashcard and baby Mozart techniques are employed in the illusion of getting children to the top of their class. New parents will enjoy this book because it provides fun activities that they can do with their child from birth – when they get into their teen years to keep them interested in learning activities. This book was an important piece of work when it came to thinking of different ways of learning and citing the case for how children will learn naturally if you encourage them to do so. Finally, the book addresses key areas of diversity to where children are all different in their modes of learning, and it is simply a case of trial and error to see which ways are more efficient.
Flintcroft, I. & Spencer, B. (2013). Journey by starlight: A time traveler’s guide to life, the universe, and everything. Long Island City, NY: One Peace Books.
Flintcroft and Spencer give you the textbook of the future when it comes to learning about life, the universe, and everything. After reading this graphic novel one gets a sense that they just read a fun story, but the added bonus is that you actually learn something about the cosmos. To start, you follow Albert Einstein as he takes you on a journey on the back of a sunbeam, and you live out the adventures that have brought us to our current understanding of life on Earth. For anyone looking for a fun read or even a gift for the graphic novel enthusiast this book is sure to be a hit, but as I stated earlier science teachers could also use the book as an accompaniment to their textbook. This book also helps in the inclusion factor by recognizing that students may not like reading their textbook, but they will listen to this one. Like Cosmos in book form this graphic novel helps highlight some of the disparate points of view that exists and have existed when debating and teaching science and creationism.
How do you remember things? Do you try to strengthen your wrote memory by saying what you need to remember over and over? Joshua Foer has found another way to take on tackling memory. He uses the idea of the “memory palace”. To summarize, this is taking information that you wish to remember and putting it in places in a place that is tied to your fondest memories like: your home, childhood home, mall, office, or where ever you like. Then, you lock a thing that you wish to remember there using vivid imagery of smells, tastes, and even in some cases obscene gestures. Foer takes you on a journey as he talks about his year as a reporter attempting to compete in the memory championship, and the people that he met to train with and gather their stories. This TEDTalk was useful when thinking of different ideas of ways that students can learn and sustain that knowledge that they acquire. So, for anyone wishing to expand their knowledge and put their brain to work this lecture/exercise is right up your alley. Foer also hints that we all are diverse in our learning capabilities and all have our own stories to tell, but if we are to carry on our own legacies we have to “remember to remember”.
Foer, J. (2011). Moonwalking with Einstein: The art and science of remembering everything. [Audiobook]. New York, NY: The Penguin Press.
How can you remember practically everything? Start by building a house. This is how author and journalist Joshua Foer “studied” for and ended up winning the United States Memory Championship by creating sections in his “memory palace” where he keeps things like important dates, orders of decks of playing cards, and even shopping lists. Follow along with Foer in his yearlong journey of attaining this skill and the remarkable lessons he learns about the human psyche in the process. If you’re a psychologist or even someone looking to improve your own memory skills you will enjoy Foer’s journey, but most of all you will learn more about yourself in the process. The importance behind this book was finding that there are other ways to learning than cramming and hoping you remembered something important. This was an important book in exploring the diversity of ways people can learn and creating a new perspective on how people learn and remember.
Gray, L., Thomas, N. & Lewis, L. (2010, May). Teachers’ use of educational technology in U.S. public schools: 2009. [Online Version]. U.S. Department of Education: National Center for Educational Statistics. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010040.pdf
This study set out by the United States Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics investigates all the ins and outs of how much technology is actually used in today’s classrooms nationwide (as of 2009). It provides statistics into surveys that were given to teachers and leaders in the education field to fill out and evaluate for a 10 year span with questions about, but not limited to: how many computers in the classroom, how many of them have internet, and how many students that are eligible for free lunch have internet access outside of the school. This study was important to the overall thesis because it put statistics behind the overall impact and use of technology in and out of the classrooms which are needed to drive any good argument. I do not recommend reading the entire article; however, because it is mainly statistics, but it can be used as a tool to help schools see trends that can help them assess their technological aspects. The article touches on an array of current issues that not only regard the technology in the school, but how poverty ratings even effect a school’s integration of technology.
Anyone that is beginning in any pedagogical field or a parent that wants to do their part and wanting to know a general idea of what standards are, where they come from, differences in state and national standards, and even the pros and cons of standards should look at this article by Greatschools.org. Here they outline the standards movement in a non-bias point of view with simple to understand words for anyone concerned to understand. Also, they discuss what they have to do with No Child Left Behind and the drive to push standardized testing. This was important to the thesis project because it helped give me a starting point into how to reexamine standards, but word the ideas in my paper that anyone reading it can understand and not get bored. I believe the staff at GreatSchools knows people are concerned with current issues concerning state and national standards and published this to help give anyone the information that they need concerning the movement.
The title here says it all; these are the statistics for how many users are on the internet throughout the world according to Nielsen Online, International Telecommunications Union, GfK, and many other sources. Not only does the site offer each country/continents populations, but it gives the percentages of growth, usage, and how much of the 100% each area uses. This knowledge can be useful when needing to find out how the technology of the internet has penetrated the entire world, and to see how many people populate a given area. This proved to be a useful area when needing the clear statistics of internet usage when relating it to technology being a driving element in the classroom. It helps quell some of the disparate points of view that technology is not available to all, but we are seeing a growing trend toward full integration.
Kaufman, B. (1964). Up the down staircase. New York, NY: Prentice Hall Press.
In Bel Kaufman’s “Up the Down Staircase”, the reader is taken through Miss Barrett’s first days as an English teacher fresh out of college. The story is a work of fiction, but Kaufman provides a forward in the book that explains that the work is non-fiction in context. Meaning that the accounts of the notes, inter-office letters, and writings on the board and the ever-popular suggestion box are all mostly true stories that Kaufman experienced as a teacher herself. As Kaufman, I mean Miss Barrett, goes throughout the year she is given many obstacles along the way like disruptive students, tough-to-get-to students, a lack of supplies, and even a promotion. This is a book for any teacher that has endured some of the above heartaches and then some that Miss Barrett is portrayed doing. But, it is also for anyone wishing to know their teacher better, and understand that most of them are people to, with their own faults and achievements. This was a book that was not really important to the overall thesis, but it was important in scope. Saying this, I find that I reflected a lot on it as I was typing to get an understanding of why teachers love their job, and feel that if the fail themselves they fail the students. Not only did the book seep into the issues of classroom diversity and individualized learning, but it also address not only past but current issues in the problems of having schools that are underfunded and underemployed.
How do you make math fun again? Khan Academy has figured this notion out by providing anyone with an internet connection access to thousands of free lessons that teach you almost anything and everything science, economic, arts and humanities, computing, and of course their flagship math. The math area of Khan Academy is unique because users can sign in using their Facebook or Google account and start learning anything from basic addition clear up to complex calculus. But, it does not end there, teachers will be happy to know that they can set up their entire class in Khan Academy and track their progress and intervene where and when they see a student struggling according to their statistics. Khan Academy has always been a useful website for me because I enjoy the simple to understand lectures that Mr. Khan and a few others have to offer, plus it has helped me better my math skills. Anyone wondering how technology can help in the classroom should look no further than here to help them and/or their pupils learn more. It helps students individualize their learning abilities by taking their own pace at the lessons they are comfortable achieving.
As the group name implies this Australian is concerned with keeping kids safe when they go out their favorite past time, recess. This document focuses on the particular area of natural playspaces and principles and general guidelines towards creating those spaces for eager learners. The target audience would be any school or even individual that is looking for ideas on how to make an interactive and safe natural play area for an alternative for of education and recess. This document was useful because it helped provide information on the physical aspects of a natural playscape, and some of the regulations that anyone should think about when creating one. It also relates to the research that is currently being conducted on unstructured play versus structured play activities like soccer, basketball, and football, to name a few.
Kozol, J. (1985). Death at an early age. New York City, NY: Penguin Books USA Inc.
Teacher/Educator Jonathan Kozol takes the reader on a journey with him to experience his year of teaching fourth grade in the run down, underfunded Boston School System. In this book, Kozol paints a grim picture of a school gone wrong where not only are textbooks scarce, out-of-date, and tattered, but the school itself is literally falling apart and some of the teachers convey their racist attitudes openly. He concludes this work by showing the reader a personal account of how he got fired from his job because he taught his students about Langston Hughes and his emotional poetry. The audience that would find this work interesting are those looking to learn from the past misgivings that haunted the halls of our schools back in the late 60’s and that even still haunt them today. This book may not have been too important to the overall thesis paper, but it was important in providing ideas and thoughts about problems in diversity within the school system. As I stated in a review of the book about the current issues that the book addresses is, “We are quick to remember the victims of school shootings, and to place blame on the ones that cause the tragedy, but we are slow to react on what truly caused them to lash out so violently.”
Long, C. (2014). Still separate, still unequal. NEA Today, 32(4), 31-33, 36-41.
Author Cindy Long of NEA Today investigates an area of education that not too many people like discussing, but it was and still is an issue in America, and that is the thought of segregated schools. Long shows us that schools may look desegregated on paper, but according to many findings schools in some areas are still “separate, but equal”. Also in the article, Long discusses some of the statistics that truly do divide us still, even after the Brown decision has been finalized. She addresses that some poverty stricken areas have been a cause for the racism and the separation; therefore, creating poorer schools. An individual looking to research the problems in our socio-economic systems should read this article because not only does it provide the true statistics on issues in diversity, but it get the point of view from the teachers, principals, and students that have to live with it and who are trying to change it. The topic in the article was useful because it helps see that the issues are not all black and white, they are also financial and economic. Diversity, of course, is the key issue in the article, but not just focusing on the ethnicity issues that arise when it comes to diversity, but also the rich versus the poor issues.
Louv, R. (2008). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficient disorder. [Kindle Edition]. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
In this highly acclaimed, highly referenced work, 2008 recipient of the Audubon Medal Richard Louv drives to the heart ours’ and our children’s disconnection with the world outside themselves. Louv addresses areas of how we have become disconnected to nature due to hysteria that the mass media creates, ideas of “stranger danger”, and implications that there are just crazy people out there. On the other side of the coin he vividly describes the benefits of the outdoors, outdoor learning environments, and unstructured play by many interviews with people that experience these benefits first hand. The audience here should be everyone because the book highlights the importance of playing in nature and nurturing our future stewards of the Earth to care for our home planet. This was quite possibly the most important piece of work in my main thesis because after reading this it was the immediate thought that went through my head, “people need to know this, and learn to love nature again”. Plus, studying biology makes me a little bias toward nature, but with the stories that Louv shares in the book it becomes evident that it is an easy read for anyone. It revolves around the current issues of unstructured play, and the diminishing of students sharing in Gardner’s eighth intelligence. Most of all, it centers on the issues that if we no longer care for and acquire knowledge about our one and only home, then it will surely crumble around us.
MIT is part of the Open Courseware Consortium of over 250 universities worldwide in a drive to do one thing, offer a high quality education to anyone with an internet connection. With 13,000 courses in 20 languages all one has to do is log-in and get learning anything from engineering, psychology, linear algebra, electricity and magnetism, and the list goes on and on. Not only do you get the lessons, but they are taught by world renowned professors in ways that anyone can understand. The website even gives testimonials from students from all over the world and of all age ranges explaining how much they have accelerated. Individuals looking to better themselves from accredited universities will want to look further at what MIT and the many others can offer them. Seeing that anyone can get an education through the internet provided a useful tool when it came to looking at how technology can improve the classroom and access to knowledge from others. It does address issues in learning diversity showing the user of the site that anyone can learn as long as they put in the time and energy.
Just like the aforementioned Kidsafe NSW document, this article introduces readers to the aspects of what makes up a natural playscape. It helps the reader by first introducing them to the notion that more and more kids are not getting the education that they need about nature, and that the attendance to parks has gone down because of this. McGuire also leads the reader into a discussion on Gardner’s eighth intelligence (naturalistic intelligence), and the benefits of having this intelligence. Mcguire then touches on aspects a school or individual should investigate when creating a nature play area. In short, one should fill that area with discoveries and intrigue that go beyond the plastic and metal play equipment found on most schoolyards. Anyone investigating the benefits and issues surround natural play will find this article compelling and hard to put down, and with some great visuals it gives the reader ideas that they can use as a template. Current issues that this work expresses are the ideas that children have become too plugged in and out of focus, and they just need to take in the breeze and the world around them.
A school in the cloud; sounds like something out of a fairytale, right? Sugata Mitra does not think so, but his idea is a cloud in a technological sense. In this TEDTalk Mitra discusses an experiment that he and a few others conducted while in the slums of New Delhi. The experiment consisted of putting a computer in a wall, and watching kids get online and discovering how to use the machine. He finds that anyone is capable of learning, and bolsters that by exclaiming, “what did the poor do wrong?” He feels that they did nothing wrong and even the lowest of low deserves an education, but that everyone just needs the tools capable of learning and they can teach themselves, with a little mentoring help. Anyone looking to address any issues in diversity will get a kick at watching Mitra and discovering how the children involved enjoy teaching themselves. He does ask that if anyone wish to participate in his school in the clouds (known as SOLE) that they do share their findings, good or bad. Here, Mitra address current issues revolving around socio-economic problem and that the range of student abilities is only hindered by the lack of resources.
In this review, Muñoz examines the various studies that have come out in the recent future about the importance of outdoor play and the benefits associated with it. It is very similar in scope to Louv’s aforementioned “Last Child in the Woods” and even mentions the book’s idea of nature deficiency disorder in the “Constraints and enablers of children’s use of the outdoors” section of the review. Also, Muñoz points out the methodologies and what people can do with the information that she has presented in the article. In the final thesis, this article proved to be a sort of crutch to support some of the underlying themes and ideas of the paper. Those who are interested in this review would be anyone looking for the research to back up ideas of unstructured play and the benefits to being outdoors; not only that skeptics will find the article compelling as well because it offers so many resources to check and discuss. Finally, the review touches on disparate points of view behind considering the home to be “safe”, and that many have been given the misconstrued idea that the outdoors is a dangerous place.
Here, the NASPE make the point that every elementary school child should be allowed at the very minimum 20 minutes of recess time a day. They also include the importance recess has on a child’s health, and their social and academic development by providing well referenced information to back up this claim. They also provide the reader with basic guidelines to follow when children are at play. Mainly people that teach in the K-8 range will find the article to be of some interest, but some may find it to be common sense, and some may even find that 20 minutes does not sound like an adequate amount of time. Regardless, this could also be helpful for parents looking for the common guidelines when it comes to knowing that their child is getting an adequate amount of time outside. Furthermore, the article can assist anyone looking for the current issues and guidelines on recess, and the epidemic of childhood obesity.
National Science Foundation (US). (2004). Public understanding of scientific terms and concepts: 2001. Science and Social Indicators, Figure 7-6. Retrieved from www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind04/c8/c8/.cfm
The referenced graph was mainly only used as an understanding of how much understanding people have when it comes to looking at basic scientific terms and concepts. It gives the percentage of people surveyed to what they know of a scientific idea like: electrons being smaller than atoms, the oxygen we breathe coming from plants, and the false notion that humans lived among the dinosaurs. Some of these notions I really wanted to highlight in the paper because they address ideas that could be problematic when it comes to people realizing their importance in the world, and recognizing the issues that enthrall us all. Any person studying most fields of science should take a look at this chart and recognize that there is a problem with what our students and populations do and do not know. Some major current issues this looks into are the problems associated with the harm ignorance could do when not taking in all the scientific angles.
Here I wanted to look at the business side of natural play. This website gives information and pricing options about setting up a playground that is not only fun and intriguing, but is also visually beautiful. Also, they give the viewer several educational links into related subjects like the importance of bees in the ecosystem, natural learning, and outdoor schooling. This website was useful because it gave me the actual cost to ease that a natural playground is not only doable by any standard, but affordable as well. Also, you could look at this site to help any school with any disparate views that they may have with providing a safe, natural environment and the cost to the taxpayer because honestly, at first site it looks like only the richest schools can afford this splendor, but they help provide options for any school.
This is the act that anyone studying environmental education will want to acknowledge when trying to find the government’s stance on environmental education. This act advocates and supports environmental and outdoor education in pre-K and all the way through 12th grade in America’s public schools. It supports this by incentives to states to create and implement “State Environmental Literacy Plans”. They have also recognized that the benefits of environmental and outdoor education and highlight these as needs for achievement. This act was crucial in the final thesis because I was able to provide strength behind some criticisms that may have existed with some people in thinking that government would not have recognized this as a problem. Finally, this act addresses disparate points of view when it comes to the government recognizing that environmental education is a step toward the progression of a “21st Century workforce” and the need for people to care for the environment.
Prensky, M. (2002). The motivation of gameplay: The real twenty-first century learning revolution. On the Horizon, 10(1), 5-11.
Should education be fun, or should it bring you great worry and pain? After all, no pain, no gain right? That is not what Marc Prensky thinks; he would like to base education and market it like gaming companies sell their games. Making games fun, flashy, exciting, and most of all available to people is what developers do, and they make millions to billions of dollars doing it, so why can’t education learn a thing or two from them? Prensky also delivers why games are so gratifying to players and why they continue to go back for more because of its rewards, incentives, and trophies that make the player (the student) more motivated to go on. Got a gamer in the family or the classroom even, then this article is for them, or got a teacher that wants to improve their game (lessons) they may also want to check this article out. This article is important because it addresses the fact that there is a growing generation out there that do not and will not take to the ideas that education originally portrays, and that it needs to change with the times. This article touches on the current issues of individualistic learning and the things that motivate us to want to learn.
ProCon.org’s mission is one that I cannot help but think that all citizens and teachers should do, “Promoting critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, primarily pro-con format. (ProCon.org, 2014). The main article focused on here though was the sometimes controversial subject of tablets versus textbooks. Talk about references, this article has references galore for both sides of the issue. Not only that, but they do provide the information in a visually pleasing format along with additional YouTube videos that address the issue in a nonpartisan format as well, despite some argumentation. Anyone looking for information about how technology and tablets have helped classrooms progress will find the article very informative, but so will anyone that prefer the old standard textbook, and after reading the article you will almost wonder if you err on the right side. This was a valuable source of information when it came to looking at disparate viewpoints on using technology in the classroom or not.
This is not the only useful bit of information that Project Learning Tree has to offer, but it is the one that would pertain more toward teaching outdoor scientific lessons. This document offers a guide to understanding the lessons that PLT has to offer in environmental education and how they relate to the Common Core and the relative standard for the nation. Overall, I recommend any teacher check out the primary website of www.plt.org for information similar to this to incorporate environmental education in their classes. But, this is important because it shows that teachers can create lessons in the environment around them, but still be able to abide by the Common Core. This could also help when looking at current issues that could arise around the Common Core when teaching environmental education.
If there is any issue in education, Robinson addresses it in this awe-inspiring and witty TEDTalk. He discusses some of the issues that No Child Left Behind has created in its wake. He also talks about what drives students and the central jobs a teacher should do, and that is to “facilitate learning”. He emphasizes that children are naturally creative and ambitious to learn, and their learning should be as individualized as themselves. This lecture is compelling to anyone looking at what other countries are doing to create better marks on standardized tests than the US, but as Robinson points out it’s not just America, it’s a problem with the systems that run it. This lecture gave me a further view of how systems could be run and what we can learn from one another to improve the systems, and to encourage imagination and creativity in students. Finally, this lecture focuses a lot on the current issues and the disparate viewpoints that the standards movement has incurred.
Sagan, Carl, Druyan, A., & Sagan, Carol. (1994). Pale blue dot: A vision of the human future in space. New York, NY: The Random House Publishing Group.
In his compelling book, Pale Blue Dot, late Astrophysicist Carl Sagan takes the reader on a quest through the cosmos and understanding our place in the world. He teaches the reader about the programs NASA has funded in embarking on this quest, and the dangers that we could face if we neglect our curiosity about the worlds outside our own. He and his wife offer valuable ways of looking through eyes of understanding our discoveries and that we should continue to try and understand if we are to survive. If you are a fan of the new or old television series of Cosmos than you will find this book is a great companion to further your own understanding and maybe get involved. Not only was the book important, but the photograph and speech about our “Pale Blue Dot” has been one of the most inspiring things I have ever heard. It made for some of the conclusion of the final paper to highlight the importance that caring for our environment must have on our future generations, and I want to inspire that caring. Despite its age, the book is still important to the current issues we face as educators to get our young minds curious and inspired to look at and admire that “blue light, captured in a sun beam”.
This brief documentary explores three schools in the United Kingdom that have adopted ideas of outdoor education and nature play. Produced by a company called Learning Through Landscapes, they talk about some of the issues that their schools have run into when adopting these alternative forms of learning, and they give advice on how to maintain upkeep of the grounds that harbor outdoor play so that they meet health and parent’s standards. The documentary was important because I wanted to hear from real teachers, parents, administrators, and students how they like the idea of not having your “standard” playground equipment. As an added bonus, they were able to provide insight on the benefits and differences that teachers and parents have seen in the children since adopting this form of recess/learning. Since the film is brief (runtime of 14 minutes) it is great for anyone who has concerns ranging from cleanup to creativity of an outdoor environment and the students and teachers working in it. This documentary also assists with understanding the disparate viewpoints that can be posed when thinking of outdoor, natural play.
In Starling’s doctorate desertion he examines children in real time conducting outdoor unstructured play, and helps the reader understand the subject more by also examining the literature that has been published that shows the many benefits there are regarding this form of play. He also discusses some of the issues that have arisen from children engaging in a sedentary lifestyle. To conduct further study; however, Starling enlists the help of 11 boys and 10 girls and observes their activity in unstructured play in a 3 week period; with the “subjects” having about a 2-5 day play period that consisted of a total of 45 minutes each time. This article is necessary for anyone wishing to see real empirical data on the ins and outs of unstructured play. As necessary as this document is in the field of teaching environmental education, it did not provide quotes and findings that I already had, but it provided me the ideas that people were not just ignoring a call for more environmental and unstructured play education. Also, it can be used as a sort of template when it comes to creating similar experiments. Finally, like many of the documents listed here, this one helps in looking at the current issues of childhood obesity and the foibles of living a sedentary lifestyle.
Steffan, W., Sanderson, A., Tyson, P.D., Jäger, J., Matson, P.A., Moore III, B., et al. (2004). Global change and the earth system: A planet under pressure. Berlin: Springer Verlag.
In this executive summary, the authors highlight the many issues that are plaguing our world involving the overall health of the Earth System. In it, they present scientific findings, references, graphs, and charts to argue that the problems with climate change, over-harvesting, fossil fuel use, and demands for all natural resources. To conclude their work they provide ways that we, as a whole Earth System, can begin to come together as one and reverse these drastic changes that are most certainly occurring. An audience looking for just the facts and premises for argument will find this document profound and compelling. I considered this summary to be important because it was able to not only provide some of the cold hard facts for the central thesis, but it also gave me sources to consider when examining environmental education further. Finally, it addresses the current issues in educating the masses about environmental decline and bringing to the forefront that further research is needed on a grand scale and our future learners will need to consider this when considering their schooling.
Seuss, D. (1971) The lorax. New York City, NY: Random House.
“Unless someone like you…cares a whole awful lot…nothing is going to get better…it’s not.” (Seuss, 1971) This was the powerful message that Dr. Seuss tried to warn young children about in the 70’s, and now many children are being taught it today in this colorful portrayal of caring for the environment. In it the old, wizened Once-ler tells the story of his entrepreneurial ventures, and how he profited from his abuse of the plush and lovely “truffula trees” to make the resource-demanding thneed. But, due to overharvesting the Once-ler is ran out of business by his own doing, and in the process wreaks havoc on the local environment. Audiences young and old will enjoy this and the later portrayal on video. Children like it for the great story and vivid pictures, and adults will like it for the message that it gives their children about taking care of the environment. The ideas of Dr. Seuss’ work were important to the final paper because he shows that any child can be taught very “adult” problems and understand the importance of them. The literature is important for address the current issues of the President’s call for children learning to read and learn about the environment.
In this official publication produced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission they introduce the reader to standards and regulations that could help prevent childhood injury on the playground. Also, they give specifications on the ins and outs of the playground equipment found in schools and daycare facilities, and the types that could be recommended for your facility’s needs. This handbook is intended for anyone concerned for the safety and well-being of the young people that use the playground meaning anyone from school representatives, daycare providers, and even parents. Also, this document proved to be useful when drawing a case for any type of outdoor play; whether it is natural or traditional, I mainly wanted to find the overall regulations of any equipment and make sure that they were easily accessible to me and the public. I would also have to say that the article could help figure out diversity of how children play, and selecting the right equipment to meet that diversity. Also, in the beginning of the article it addresses some of the current issues regarding childhood obesity and accidents on the playground that have arisen in recent years.
In this research article students from the University of California – Riverside investigate the scientific that not only does our environment influence our evolution, but that it is “reciprocal” and our evolution may influence our environment. To summarize the experiment, guppies were placed into two different stream communities (one with highly diverse, and many predators and the other with fewer predators), then significant results were recorded after six week. These results yielded results that local adaptation did change the diets and the ecosystems that the fish were living in. The scope of the paper is intended for evolutionary biologist, and any teacher needing a good example of how form fits function in biology. This article helped me display my overall thesis in finding real-life areas where the environment we live in impacts its overall health of the organisms and vice versa. Finally, one current issue that the article could easily address is the thought of teaching evolutionary biology in schools, and moving away from ideas of the ever elusive “missing link” and focusing on the whole changing landscape of the Earth in its entirety.
Williams, D.R. & Brown, J.D. (2012). Learning gardens and sustainability education: Bringing life to schools and schools to life. New York, NY: Routledge.
Here, Williams and Brown build a learning garden for the reader from the ground up, literally. They address the importance of knowing the soil and taking care of it so it can take care of you and many others. Also, they discuss the fundamentals behind creating a learning garden at your local school and creating an awakening of the senses to the bigger picture that a garden means to the school. Gardeners and educators alike will find this work to be informative and an overall classic guide to cultivating and growing peace in the classroom and Earth. This book displays its importance for the future classroom in a sense that if you do not have a great learning environment; how can you possibly have great learners? It addresses the current issues of the need for more sustainability and environmental education and the means to disperse those lessons to the ever-growing population.
Ever wonder how much all those worksheets and printed off test cost at your local public school or university. Let’s just say it’s not cheap when it comes to equipment, paper, and toner for anyone, but schools pay a significant cost when it comes to printing. Most of this, as Williams highlights, is due to poor management of the system. In this article Williams explains where all these costs come from and how they can be cut significantly down by employing smarter practices and smarter, more economical software. Administrators and even business owners will want to take a look at this article and see for themselves if they are also contributing to “out-of-control” printing costs. In a nutshell, this article proved its importance by helping understand the statistics behind paper use and the financial issues that schools can face when printing. Finally, this article addresses the current issues that have come about when using technology in our schools and helped bolster the ideas that ingenuity is the right path to take not only for overall monetary costs, but the costs on the environment as well.
Did you ever have the friend or student that would talk or even brag about the amount of books that they would have to carry simply because they did not have time to go to their locker to put them all away and carrying everything was the answer? I have seen it, and after reading this article I became concerned about the backbone of our society, the students. Here, Woolston explores the research that has taken place in looking into current issues that have arisen out of having more and heavier textbooks. He also touches on recommendations that parents can give their children into lightening their overall load and preventing later serious injury. This article was used to strengthen the case for using things like iPads and tablet PCs with the e-text versions of their books, so kids not only have to carry less but they get further experience using these technological devices. This article does not really touch on the current issue of using technology in the classroom, but it does assist by giving the statistics of injuries and weight that a child must carry using traditional means of texts.
This article is meant as a call to action to get people young and old alike interested in nature again. Much like Louv’s “Last Child in the Woods” this work highlights the impacts and benefits that come with taking our children back into nature. Also, the world forum addresses the already know current issue that children can face when not having any experiences in nature including, but not limited to the immerging issues of childhood obesity, over medicating to account for mental and physiological issues, and a sense of not caring about the environment. But all is not lost; the forum also assists the reader in providing bulleted guidelines and principles that can assist them on ideas and activities to further the fun with nature. The article is important for anyone looking for a quick rundown of all the benefits nature and environmental education can provide in a simple, well-referenced, and to the point article. Plus, it has an added bonus on looking into the diversity of learning that many students have, and how re-connecting with nature can help individualize learning through the menagerie of experiences one can have.
In this article, Zandvliet acquires research and inquiry from teachers and educators from all over the world about what other methods can be used when educating young and old minds about the environment. He also looks into not simply into just environmental education, but other areas outside and related to environmental education such as: general educational research, cultural diversity, and deeper philosophic and scientific understandings of environmental education. He justifies the notion that caring about the environment is not only central to the United States or any other country, but should be an issue that the entire world investigates under an objective lens. The article was found to be of some importance at the ideas of looking at diversity issues when it comes to teaching about the environment. Also, it is helpful to readers who are looking at ways that education is changing around the country and what steps they are taking to acquire environmental change. From America to Australia to Chile to China this document shows the reader that diversity is not just a thing we enjoy in education in this school and that school, but it is something welcomed and researched by schools all across the land.
