What is a school decile rating?

In the weekend I spoke to a number of people who were looking to, or had recently done so, choose schools for their children.  All I spoke to were educated and successful in their field, as well as being quite nice and pretty easy to get along with.  However, overwhelmingly, they to suffered from one major misconception about schools, this being; the higher the decile rating, the better the school, the better the standard of education.

To clear up this issue I have gone to the New Zealand Ministry of Education website to find out the facts about decile ratings, which you to can access by clicking here.  To save you time, read the following line that finishes the Ministry's brief explanation on the subject:

'The decile rating does not measure the standard of education delivered by a school'. 

20 life lessons from Steve Jobs

If these life lessons worked for Steve Jobs, surely they're going to be beneficial to those of us in the education sector.  You can find out more about each lesson by clicking here to read Lance Ulanoff's excellent article.

1. Don’t Wait
2. Make Your Own Reality
3. Control Everything You Can
4. Own Your Mistakes
5. Know Yourself
6. Leave the Door Open for the Fantastic
7. Don’t Hold Back
8. Surround Yourself with Brilliance
9. Build a Team of A Players
10. Be Yourself
11. Be Persuasive
12. Show Others the Way
13. Trust Your Instincts
14. Take Risks
15. Follow Great with Great
16. Make Tough Decisions
17. Presentation Can Make a World of Difference
18. Find a Way to Balance Your Intensity
19. Live for Today
20. Share Your Wisdom

Advice on how to get your child ahead

I really love this advice from Howard Gardner for parents who want to get their kids ahead:

'Walks in the woods, visits to museums and building with tinker toys.  "You can't replace the human imagination," he said. "There's no app for that."

So put the iPad away and have some actual real life experiences!

Schools in cyberspace

This article from today's New Zealand Herald looks at using the Internet and computers in general to support children's learning.  Many interesting points are raised.  Here are a couple that caught my attention:

Point 1
Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs also recounts Jobs telling US President Barack Obama that education was hopelessly antiquated and crippled by union work rules. "It was absurd," he added, "that American classrooms were still based on teachers standing at a board and using textbooks. All books, learning materials, and assessments should be digital and interactive, tailored to each student and providing feedback in real time." 

Point 2
Challenging as the idea sounds, it highlights another problem. Generally, greater use of computers hasn't shown significant improvements in science, maths or reading scores - a conundrum calling into question the whole idea of giving schools technological upgrades. 

Thought provoking stuff?  I think so.

To read the article in full, click here.

A 12 year old app developer

This is an interesting TED talk by a 12 year old who has started developing his own apps for iPhone,iPad and iPod Touch.  This is something that could be done in any schools through the use of an app development kit.

I really like the idea of students becoming the developers of apps, as opposed to solely using apps that have been created by others.

How often should kids exercise?

Check out this article from the Everybody Live to 100 website.  It's about the amount of exercise that kids should have each day; giving details on the physical, social, mental and longer term benefits.

Here are four key guidelines:

• do 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity throughout each day
• be active in as many ways as possible; for example, through play, cultural activities, dance, sport and recreation, jobs, and going from place to place
• be active with friends and whanau, at home, school and in the community
• spend less than 2 hours a day (out of school time) in front of television, computers and game consoles.

How video games make kids smarter

Check out this TED talk from Gabe Zichermann on how video games make kids smarter.  He presents a very compelling case.  The blurb for the talk from the TED site is:

'Can playing video games make you more productive? Gabe Zichermann shows how games are making kids better problem-solvers, and will make us better at everything from driving to multi-tasking'.