Education News: October 20, 2006

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending October 20, 2006.

No Test Tubes? Debate on Virtual Science Classes
(Source: The New York Times, 10/20/06) Online education, barely a decade old, is rapidly expanding to include laboratory science. While some educators believe that there is no replacement for a physical lab and Bunsen burner, others believe that online science classes (including one science lesson where students can virtually dissect a pig) are a niche for students who cannot learn in a lab. This would include students in remote areas and students in schools with a limited science curriculum. One student interviewed said she chose to take zoology online because it was too specific and therefore wasn’t taught in her high school. Science educators have been compiling graphics and images in the last few years to make laboratory information readily accessible online. Recently, however, the College Board and online schools that offer science programs have been sparring over whether “online labs” without real lab time should be awarded Advanced Placement credit.

NFL Launches $1.5 Million School Campaign to Get Kids Active
(Source: CNN, 10/19/06) The American Heart Association and the NFL have teamed up in a $1.5 million dollar campaign to get kids to be more active in the classroom. The campaign includes cameo appearances by NFL players at various public high schools, where they encourage kids to work out. The campaign also includes a variety of lesson plans which incorporate exercise. Center for Disease Control statistics show that 17 million kids today are obese.

School Colors
(Source: The Washington Post, 10/18/06) Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland has recently adopted a policy of color-coded identification in the interest of building community feelings in the various academic programs that the school offers. Freshmen are required to wear a red tag, as are English as second language students. Seniors wear black tags. Other colors denote specific schools of study. Most students adamantly oppose the system; one student interviewed likened the procedure to dog-tagging. Consequences for wearing the badges are strict, including in-school suspension.

Teens’ Dancing is Freaking Out Adults
(Source: The Los Angeles Times, 10/17/06) Principals and school administrators across the United States are starting to crack down on “freak dancing,” an MTV-inspired form of risqué dancing that can look like simulated sex. Dancing tastes have differed across the generational divide for decades, but some administrators draw the line at the current form of dancing, calling it lewd and disrespectful. Some schools are canceling dances until further notice, while others are more carefully chaperoning dances and selecting music carefully to ensure that students show more discretion.

Teachers Are Reaching Out to Students With a New Class of Blogs
(Source: The Seattle Times, 10/16/06) Classblogmeister.com and edublogs.org are two educational forms of the blog trend that is sweeping the nation. Teachers are getting increasingly excited about blogs. Rather than viewing them as a waste of time or a fertile ground for online predators, some teachers are creating blogs for their classrooms that allow students to have interactive dialogue with each other. A nice safety feature that can be built in to these blogs allows the teacher to review/edit each comment before it is posted. Students enjoy seeing their work in print, making blogging just another way for students to get their voices heard.