Mike Hasley's Bookmarks

• I don’t know how to use digital technologies to engage my students in meaningful learning tasks, so I prefer to just lecture to them as I was lectured to for years in the 20th century.


• I believe the student’s only viable role in the classroom is that of passive receiver.


• I reject all conceptions and theories of active learning being good.


• I choose to be the only person in my classroom doing any real thinking and providing any real evidence of both hard work and cognitive exertion, therefore I choose to exclusively lecture.


• As the only person in my classroom with the initials “PhD” after my name, clearly I have the most knowledge and therefore should be the only person speaking once class begins.


• Students have nothing to offer me as a learner and nothing to offer each other during my classes that could be of value, relative to the infinite value of my ideas and perspectives about our topic of study.


• I am not interested in the literacies or the skills of the 21st century, my job role is to strictly impart the content from the textbook which I learned in the 20th century to my students.


• Digital technologies can only be used to distract and entertain, they can never be used to inform, challenge constructively and engage.


• My favorite metaphor for students in my class is that of a THRALL, or slave.


• When I speak, I not only expect but DEMAND that all students sit with rapt attention, hanging on with bated breath for my next ideological vocalization.

This attitude, perhaps more than any other, may explain why we have so few laptop initiatives at both K-12 as well as higher education levels here in the great state of Oklahoma.




Let’s deconstruct this professor’s statement a bit. What exactly was he saying with these two sentences? Here are some possibilities.





1. I don’t know how to use digital technologies to engage my students in meaningful learning tasks, so I prefer to just lecture to them as I was lectured to for years in the 20th century.


2. I believe the student’s only viable role in the classroom is that of passive receiver.


3. I reject all conceptions and theories of active learning being good.


4. I choose to be the only person in my classroom doing any real thinking and providing any real evidence of both hard work and cognitive exertion, therefore I choose to exclusively lecture.


5. As the only person in my classroom with the initials “PhD” after my name, clearly I have the most knowledge and therefore should be the only person speaking once class begins.


6. Students have nothing to offer me as a learner and nothing to offer each other during my classes that could be of value, relative to the infinite value of my ideas and perspectives about our topic of study.


7. I am not interested in the literacies or the skills of the 21st century, my job role is to strictly impart the content from the textbook which I learned in the 20th century to my students.


8. Digital technologies can only be used to distract and entertain, they can never be used to inform, challenge constructively and engage.


9. My favorite metaphor for students in my class is that of a THRALL, or slave.


10. When I speak, I not only expect but DEMAND that all students sit with rapt attention, hanging on with bated breath for my next ideological vocalization.

This attitude, perhaps more than any other, may explain why we have so few laptop initiatives at both K-12 as well as higher education levels here in the great state of Oklahoma.




Let’s deconstruct this professor’s statement a bit. What exactly was he saying with these two sentences? Here are some possibilities.





1. I don’t know how to use digital technologies to engage my students in meaningful learning tasks, so I prefer to just lecture to them as I was lectured to for years in the 20th century.


2. I believe the student’s only viable role in the classroom is that of passive receiver.


3. I reject all conceptions and theories of active learning being good.


4. I choose to be the only person in my classroom doing any real thinking and providing any real evidence of both hard work and cognitive exertion, therefore I choose to exclusively lecture.


5. As the only person in my classroom with the initials “PhD” after my name, clearly I have the most knowledge and therefore should be the only person speaking once class begins.


6. Students have nothing to offer me as a learner and nothing to offer each other during my classes that could be of value, relative to the infinite value of my ideas and perspectives about our topic of study.


7. I am not interested in the literacies or the skills of the 21st century, my job role is to strictly impart the content from the textbook which I learned in the 20th century to my students.


8. Digital technologies can only be used to distract and entertain, they can never be used to inform, challenge constructively and engage.


9. My favorite metaphor for students in my class is that of a THRALL, or slave.


10. When I speak, I not only expect but DEMAND that all students sit with rapt attention, hanging on with bated breath for my next ideological vocalization.

• State assessments
• District benchmark or interim assessments
• End-of-unit or chapter tests
• End-of-term or semester exams
• Scores that are used for accountability for schools (AYP) and students (report card grades).

• It doesn't matter when you learn it, so long as you learn it. A student’s grade should reflect her current understanding of the course, not last month’s, not her understanding when it was convenient for me to assess her. Keep a loose grip on your students' grades.


• My assessment policy needs to direct my remediation of your skills. My comprehensive test on "Twelfth Night" won't do much for us two months down the road when you come in looking to patch yourself up. Assign separate scores to "Twelfth Night Themes," "Twelfth Night Vocabulary," and "Twelfth Night [whatever else it is you English teachers do]," scores which can be targeted and remediated individually.


• My assessment policy needs to incentivize your own remediation. How many students will put in the effort to remediate their skills if the reward isn't tangible and immediate? Traditionally, what do you have? The promise that your studying here at lunch is really gonna pay off on the next test? Which is in three weeks. The student's like, awesome, glad I came in.

• Crafting a well-written email to an adult



• Holding online video chats with community members, leaders, and decision makers



• Analyzing the differences between viewpoint-clashing Web sites such as Wikipedia.org and Conservapedia.com



• Blogging responsibly



• Having one student write a research paper using only online resources, and another write a paper on the same topic using only print resources, and compare and contrast the final papers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Among the generation of kids growing up wired, many teens are hyper-motivated to learn a special skill like how to create a podcast, direct a YouTube video, publish an anime site, or hack an iPhone.

Now if only teachers could inspire such ingenuity.

n the News and Observer on Sunday the frontpage article was about how the NCLB assessment systems have created a culture of low level learning and also created a silent epidemic around gifted or advanced students.  They also coined a new term No Child Allowed Ahead.  As I was reading this article I was reflecting on the work of Dr. Hersch around creating a 21st Century assessment.  His work asks students to use multiple resources and documents to answer six questions that range from comprehension to creativity.  Students have an hour and a half to complete the digital assessment and it is scored using a rubric that is steeped in research about critical thinking.

One piece that I would like to see added would be the ability for students to collaborate and then produce some answers based on their collaboration.

I think The Impulsive Buy’s number one hater is right, I need to jazz up my
life. Here’s what he/she/it wrote to me: