The Washington Post– and many other outlets– recently reported on the resignation letter of Gerald J. Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School, Syracuse, New York. Mr. Conti has 40 years of teaching experience, but feels that teaching has been marginalized in the increasingly aggressive drive for standardization of curricula, instruction, and assessment.

With regard to my profession, I have truly attempted to live John Dewey’s famous quotation (now likely cliché with me, I’ve used it so very often) that “Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.” This type of total immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching “heavy,” working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day and “data driven” education seeks only conformity, standardization, testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential Learnings.
- Gerald J. Conti

Whatever your personal level of achievement, it’s vital that you remember to make space for others to stand up and stand out. Here are three examples of celebrities rising to that challenge.

Michael Bublè and Sam Hollyman in 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cw1uLVSl1Y

Billy Joel and Michael Pollack– a Vanderbilt University student in 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p04TYk4j0zQ

Bono of U2 and Adam Bevell– a self-taught, blind guitarist– in 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpBc2SgEvq8

Thank you to Christie Veitch of Modular Robotics and Brian Danielak of the University of Maryland for reminding me.

Infographics have a way of bringing issues into focus (… thus “INFOgraphics”, I suppose!). American education reform seems to be stuck in a pattern of finding fault, then believing that more of the same policies that created the faults are the solution.

“Adjuncts are not regular members of the faculty; we are paid an hourly rate for time spent in the classroom. We are not paid to advise students, grade papers, or prepare materials or lectures for class. . . . To ensure that we remain conscious of the adjunctification of CUNY, we ask that you do not call us ‘Professor.’”

To learn more about the source and context, be sure to read The Village Voice’s article on the outsourcing of education.

My sense is that we all often throw up our hands and imagine that there’s nothing we can do, whether it be about our country or our organizations or ourselves.

We should fear failure: the failure to try and the failure to behave in a moral, principled way; everything else is ego.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2z9lV3W1g

http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html

I wanted to let you know about Apple’s new two-step verification process and give you my recommendation regarding it.

Recommendation: Activate it.

Two-step verification is a security method that has become popular over the past few years as passwords, pass phrases, and security questions have become increasingly less secure.

Two-step verification works (in any context) by asking you to register a list of authorized devices to which Apple can send a verification code when your account is accessed from a new device. In my case, I’ve registered my iPhone, iPad, Macbook, and a trusted friend’s SMS-enabled cell phone.

The first time I (or anyone!!!) tries to make a purchase via the iTunes stores, iBook, etc. or tries to change my Apple account settings from a previously unknown device, Apple will first send a verification code to one of my trusted devices (other than the one trying to make the purchase/change). I’ll have to enter that code in order to complete the transaction.

Example: if I buy a new Macbook and try to buy a song in iTunes from that new device, Apple will first send a verification code to my iPhone or iPad or friend’s phone (you choose which device receives the verification code when you try to make the purchase of the song). I’ll then have to enter that code on the new Macbook before it will be allowed to use my Apple account.

This prevents anyone anywhere from trying to access my account, since they’re unlikely to have 2 of my devices in their possession.

I added a trusted friend’s phone to my authorized devices list just in case I don’t have two of my devices with me; there’s a backup person I can contact who can read the code sent to their phone to me, should the need arise. It’s like giving someone a spare car key.

Apple has provided a FAQ with steps to take to activate 2-step verification at

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5570

Some of the warnings as you setup two-step verification are daunting (“This will be the ONLY way you can access your Apple Account… Apple will NOT be able to reset your password for you…”). Generally, this is all for the best… it means that no one ELSE will be able to reset your password, either!. Just be sure you have a backup person (friend, spouse, child/parent)’s device authorized, too.

In order to do that:

• you’ll provide your friend/spouse/child/parent’s telephone number to Apple during the setup process.
• Apple will immediately send a 4-digit code to that person’s phone.
• you’ll be left looking at a screen on your computer asking you to type in that verification code, so…
• your friend/spouse/child/parent will need to forward that 4 digit code to you right away so you can type it in.

Additionally, during the setup process Apple provides you with a “RECOVERY KEY” that you’re encouraged to print out or write down and then keep in a safe place (fire proof box, safety deposit box, etc). This is your last ditch method of resetting your account password, should all of your trusted devices be lost or destroyed at the same time.

If you have questions, check in with your nearest Apple store.

Logan’s thoughtful, well-presented talk at a recent TEDx conference reminds me just how much massified education is failing our youth.

Learners need agency over their learning experiences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY

Location: College of Saint Rose
Term(s): Fall 2012, Spring 2013
Class size: ~20

In this course, students develop their computational thinking skills through guided inquiry discussions. Topics such as the nature of computation, binary, boolean logic, computer architecture, networking, and programming are introduced. Students are challenged to reverse engineer programming solutions in order to explore functional decomposition and other computational concepts.

Location: University at Albany, School of Education, Department of Educational & Counseling Psychology
Term(s): Spring 2013
Class size: TBD
Co-taught with Paul Zachos

Backward design, formative assessment and action research will be applied to practical problems chosen by participants to develop critical assessment and evaluation concepts and skills for STEM-related education. The course will support participants in creating innovative lessons or productively addressing classroom, school, and state challenges such as high-stakes testing and professional performance reviews.

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920024422.do
By Q. Ethan McCallum
Ebook: 31.99$ • Print: 39.99$

Bad data is a fact of life. Coping with bad data is a valuable, learned skill. Bad Data Handbook offers insights from over 20 authors based on their years of personal experience managing ill-defined, often chaotic and incomplete data. We begin with a exploration of what is meant by *bad data* and what checks we can preform to help us understand data quality as a prerequisite to data analysis.

Kevin Fink offers suggestions on approaching data critically in order to ensure that we understand what we’re working with before we begin to try to manipulate it. Fink offers useful scripts in shell and Perl that can be used to inspect data and perform basic sanity checks. Paul Murrell tackles the problem of scraping data from sources formatted for human consumption into a format more amenable for algorithmic analysis using R. And on and on.

Each chapter addresses a critical concern in the data life-cycle: identifying, annotating, capturing, archiving, versioning, manipulating, analyzing, and deriving actionable information from imperfect or incomplete data. The advice offered is both powerful and immediately useful to data scientists and newcomers to the field alike and for me has spurred several ideas for how to approach teaching statistics.

Given the number of authors who contributed to this volume, it should come as no surprise that the tone, writing styles, and tools used vary greatly among the chapters, sometimes wandering into technical minutia, but only infrequently. The book holds together remarkably well, regardless, and was a pleasure to read.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary ebook copy of this book to review