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Place navigation on the left of the screenWe had a standing-room only crowd at the MSC hearings today in Lansing. Thanks to all who participated!
"A sense of wonderment in every student"
Posted by: Jeff Kupperman Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:09:44 GMT
Excerpt from tonight's Michigan Student Caucus online chat with SEHS Dean Susanne Chandler:
Q: As a way to improve education in America, Bill and Melinda Gates have spent millions of dollars on creating new types of alternative schools. Some of these focus on science and technology while others focus on giving students specific skill sets. What are your thoughts on implementing alternative or non-traditional types of schools to improve education in Michigan?
A: Yes, I am also following Bill and Melinda Gates in their quest to improve us all (and thank goodness for it). I'm a public school advocate, but within that arena, I'm all for alternative and non-traditional types of education. Frankly, the kinds of education we provide in almost every arena is WAY TOO institutional. For me, it resembles prison. Learning should be fun. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be hard work, but it should also be fun - challenging; sparking curiosity; make kids eyes open wide in wonderment. We're so locked-stepped with standards, it's depressing. What I wouldn't give to open a non-traditional school built on the concept of creating a sense of wonderment in every student.
More MSC in the press
Posted by: Jeff Kupperman Tue, 13 Feb 2007 03:47:51 GMT
It seems to be our month for media exposure: this time we've been featured in the UM University Record. Nice pic, Gary!
MSC in the news
Posted by: Jeff Kupperman Wed, 31 Jan 2007 03:03:29 GMT
The group from Flint's Whittier Classical Academy made the ABC-TV 12 news today. Check it out!
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=local&id=4986219
The walls have started talking
Posted by: Jeff Kupperman Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:19:42 GMT
In the "what I did on my winter vacation" category, voila: Talking Walls. (Same goes for Gary, with apologies to our spouses.) It actually came out pretty well, though there's still plenty of things we want to add and refine. And on a tech note, we used just about every Rails feature we know, and even a few that we still don't quite understand.
Despite the fact that I'm very glad not to be working on it today, comments and suggestions are welcome.
For UM-Ann Arbor students: Registering for MSC at UM-Flint
Posted by: Jeff Kupperman Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:18:12 GMT
Students unable to register for EDU 362/Michigan Student Caucus at UM-Ann Arbor may take its sister course at UM-Flint.
The project is the same, and you'd still be participating in one large group with students from UM-Ann Arbor and elsewhere. It is an online course, so you would not need to attend any classes in Flint.
Here's what you'd need to do:
(1) Get permission from your advisor. This usually isn't a problem, since other students have gotten permission to do the same thing in the past, though some programs are picky about when and how guest classes are taken.
(2) Fill out a "guest application," which requires an official signature from Ann Arbor (again, ask your advisor -- Ann Arbor may have a form, or you can download a generic one at http://www.umflint.edu/resources/offices/admissions/guest.php)
(3) Take the guest application to the (Ann Arbor) Registrar, which will certify and send it to Flint.
(4) Register for the course at Flint. You'll get a separate bill, which comes out to something like $900 for in state, $1600 for out of state.
(5) After the course is over, request a transcript from Flint, and transfer the credits (and grade) to Ann Arbor.
You should start this process ASAP -- getting the Registrar to process everything can take a couple weeks.
The course at Flint is EDU 225-W1, "Participation in Interactive Communications & Simulations." It may also come up with it's subtitle, "Michigan Student Caucus." One thing to note: The Flint section is 3 credits, while the Ann Arbor section is 4. The course is essentially the same -- the difference is due to institutional reasons.
Please let me know if you decide to go this route....
ICS skills in the global economy
Posted by: Jeff Kupperman Tue, 17 Oct 2006 14:34:46 GMT
If you're wondering how projects like the Michigan Student Caucus and Place Out Of Time are connected to skills employers are looking for in the real world (read: the global economy), check out this, excerpted from the New York Times today:
October 17, 2006
Skills Gap Hurts Technology Boom in India
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
TIRUCHENGODE, India — As its technology companies soar to the outsourcing skies, India is bumping up against an improbable challenge. In a country once regarded as a bottomless well of low-cost, ready-to-work, English-speaking engineers, a shortage looms.
India still produces plenty of engineers, nearly 400,000 a year at last count. But their competence has become the issue.
A study commissioned by a trade group, the National Association of Software and Service Companies, or Nasscom, found only one in four engineering graduates to be employable. The rest were deficient in the required technical skills, fluency in English or ability to work in a team or deliver basic oral presentations....
With the number of technology jobs expected to nearly double to 1.7 million in the next four years, companies are scrambling to find fresh engineering talent and to upgrade the schools that produce it....
This year, India’s largest software company, Tata Consultancy Services, plans to add 30,000 people to its current work force of 72,000. So it was that on a recent afternoon a four-man team from the company roamed the halls of a college founded by a local textile magnate in this small south Indian outpost.
The team came to Tiruchengode with the goals of selecting its next generation of software programmers and assessing how, in the short term, the company could help the college churn out more of what it needed. “These are the guys who are going to write my Windows 2010,” as one of the recruiters put it.
“We can’t afford to let talent go” was the verdict of A. K. Pattabiraman, a member of the team.
They grilled professors and administrators: How many faculty members have doctorates? Why did so many students have incompletes by the time they entered their fourth and final year? What software programs do they use for the class in mechatronics — a combination of mechanics, information technology and electronics?
They tested the students’ ability to reason and speak, tossing out debate topics, like democracy versus dictatorship, and science quiz questions, like what happens to an iron rod put in a beaker of nitric acid....
The MSC Ann Arbor orientation meeting
Posted by: Jeff Kupperman Wed, 06 Sep 2006 01:33:47 GMT
... will be on Wednesday, Sept. 13, at 7:00 in room 2229 of the School of Education building. This is a MANDATORY meeting for all students in UM-Ann Arbor EDUC 362 sections 05 and 06.