<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> I highly respect you initiatives, Caroline, not just because they start as a basically good idea, but then you do great follow-through that I wish I will learn more from.  And this is a great initiative, your email waiting a long time in my inbox because it was so good I wasn't figuring out how to contribute, though I felt I needed to at least share a couple thoughts.<br> <br> Something sort of along these lines I have been pursuing pretty much since forever, but in my case it has not passed from being a gedankenexperiment, alas.<br> <br> My reflection goes along these ways<br> <br> 1) each child (and each teacher!) is unique in abilities, giftings, potential and actual skills, learning styles...<br> <br> from this we can infer that "one-size-fits-all" education is not as good - for the child - as education that fits each child's way.  <br> <br> one-size-fits-all education is cheaper, seems to work, is the way it is done everywhere... arguments hard to beat, though for generations it was SOP, for those who could afford it, to have tutors to work with their kids one-on-one, something obviously impractical and impossible to scale-up to the needs and the rights we recognize now.<br> <br> enter differentiated instruction, which sadly has meant often some kind of apartheit, where the "A" tier gets attention, funding, the best teachers...  It is now SOP that there are "better" schools parents fight to get their kids in.  Contrariwise, many classrooms are by design mixed-things and some sort of forced integration has been a fashion for a while, and for a while failing schools got more funding, a trend that took a while to turn around since it was discovered that it encouraged failure.  <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Your proposal indicates "more intensive instruction" for the "students that are struggling", which is nice, no doubt for those, but maybe unfair to the others.  It appears many more "scholar athletes" lately are getting diagnosed for disorders that allow them to use chemicals that otherwise are banned...  I am concerned that if the way to get better schooling is to be lower tier, there might be a rush for it.<br> <br> <br> <br> On 04/20/2010 09:29 AM, Caroline Meeks wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:u2gb74fba2b1004200729ga99aaf68g444862babeba3925@mail.gmail.com" type="cite">Hi Subbu, <div><br> </div> <div>Not off topic in my opinion.  </div> <div><br> </div> <div>RTI consists of:</div> <div><br> </div> <div>1. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','Times New Roman','sans serif'; font-size: 13px;"><b>Scientific, Research-Based Instruction- Delivered in Tiers, with students who are struggling getting more intensive instruction.</b></span></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b>2. Screening of all students.</b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b>3. Progress monitoring (about every 2 weeks) for the students getting the more intensive instruction (the 'intervention').</b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b><br> </b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b>US based discussions of RTI focus on how it effects the pipeline to special education.  But in many OLPC contexts I don't think there is a special education to be referred to. I think if kids can't make it in the general classroom they drop out.  Thus a system that keeps more kids on track is valuable.</b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b><br> </b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b>Discussions of how to improve instruction is very on topic for RTI.  In RTI terms you could think about it in two ways.  Are the materials part of a Tier I (all students) instruction or are they for Tier II, for struggling students.  The great thing about technology, be it a laptop or a mp4 player, is that it could be used in both ways.  The whole class could use it, and we could help teachers match up specific weakness in students with specific learning objects for a Tier II like intervention.</b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b><br> </b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b>I'm focusing a lot on the screening and progress monitoring pieces of RTI because, thanks to huge, long, high stakes tests that teachers don't see results back from for months, assessment has gotten a bad name.   RTI assessment is quick and results are immediate, specific and actionable.  </b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b><br> </b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b>Yes, on the cell phones/hand helds for doing the assessments.  In the US palm pilots are used. I do think setting it up on a cell phone would be far more economical.</b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b><br> </b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b>Thanks for responding. :)</b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b><br> </b></font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', 'Times New Roman', 'sans serif'"><b>Caroline</b></font></div> <div><br> <div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 9:36 AM, K. K. Subramaniam <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:subbukk@gmail.com">subbukk@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div class="im">On Tuesday 20 April 2010 06:01:33 am Caroline Meeks wrote:<br> > Why can't computers for children both give them the means for creation,<br> > independent learning, collaboration etc etc. and give their teacher<br> > detailed, nuanced, actionable data on what skills they have mastered and<br> > what they are still struggling with?<br> </div> Computer-centric vocabulary is becoming obsolete today. Talking about<br> computers today is a bit-like talking about DC/Induction motors in our homes.<br> We don't think of mixers, juicers, grinders, washing machines etc as motor<br> machines, do we?  Kids don't think of mobile phones as computers. They think<br> of them as phones, cameras, voice recorders, mp3/mp4 players etc.<br> <div class="im"><br> >Problem solvers, groundbreaking pioneers and visionary leaders need to know<br> >their phonics and their basic math skills.  We have the capability to build<br> >tools that help teachers know and track which students are struggling with<br> >what skills, and provide the collaborative framework for them to collect<br> >data and share it to determine what works to teach those skills to all<br> >students.<br> </div> Just a few weeks back, I had a discussion with village school teachers about<br> using smart machines to enliven language lessons. The discussion veered around<br> using mini-speakers with mp3 player in classrooms. The players, about 4" cube<br> take in 2GB USB flash, SD card or micro-SD cards and play for 5 hours on a<br> single charge. They cost about $8-$10 here and 2GB card can easily hold about<br> four-five years of language lessons. Neither teachers nor 6-9 year olds think<br> of them as computers.<br> <br> We could also think of using portable mp4 players (for visual lessons) or<br> smartphones (for data collection). These machines don't exclude the use of<br> laptops for authoring lessons and give more options for children to learn<br> languages, math and science.<br> <br> [Apologies if this is OT on a RTI thread]<br> <br> Subbu<br> </blockquote> </div> <br> <br clear="all"> <br> -- <br> Caroline Meeks<br> Solution Grove<br> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Caroline@SolutionGrove.com">Caroline@SolutionGrove.com</a><br> <br> 617-500-3488 - Office<br> 505-213-3268 - Fax<br> </div> <pre wrap=""><fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset> _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a></pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>