November : The most popular posts

Grace Hopper Google Animated Doodle

Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, "We've always done it this way." I try to fight that. That's why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise."

Grace Hopper

Trbute to Grace Hopper

http://www.womencitizen.com/

Yes. Today Google Animated Doodle honors computer scientist pioneer Grace Hopper, United Sates Navy Rear Admiral born on December 9, 1906.

Hopper is known for being one of the designers of COBOL, one of the first modern programming languages, which was created in 1959 during the Conference on Data Systems Languages.

http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/

It's interesting because it coincides with the Computer Science Education Week which begins today. 

Computer Science Education Week (Dec 9 - 15, 2013) is an annual international event dedicated to showing K-12 students the importance of computer science education. The event is organized by the Computing in the Core coalition and Code.org. The week wiil be full of resources and events to help curriculum directors and educators integrate and implement computer science lessons.

Europe Code Week

https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/

Like it is interesting because Europe Code week has been celebrated all over the Europe on November 25-30. 

So Grace Hopper quote could be my inspirational quote for this post. I believe and practice the change in education. Students welcome changes in our lessons.

Back my regularly scheduled program today! November, the most popular posts of the month.

So, let's doing! This is November in review of education tips.

I added six posts in November on different subjects. Here my list of the 5 most popular, presented in most reading order. 

In November, I wrote posts in English, Français. The two most read were wirtten in French.

I am happy to see that the most-read post of the month is a serious matter: Éducation: Parole aux enfants victimes d'exclusion. Child poverty is something sad every where and in developed countries, it is a flagellum in our days.

Child Poverty in Developed Countries

http://adam1cor.files.wordpress.com/

« Il y a un risque de génération sacrifiée »

Michèle Barzach, la présidente d’Unicef France. 

La Jorunée Internationale des Droits de L'Enfant établie par les Nations Unies (UN) en 1954 se célèbre le 20 Novembre.

Dans une étude inédite très récente, l'Unicef France s'est penché sur le lien qui existe entre "privations et exclusion sociale" chez les enfants. 

Entre février et juillet 2013, 22.500 enfants, âgés de 6 à 18 ans, et originaires de plus de soixante-dix villes de France, ont répondu à 133 questions sur leur vie quotidienne.

Crédits: Infographie Unicef

http://www.unicef.fr/

Les résultats de la consultation ont montré que près d'un jeune sur cinq est en situation "préoccupante" d'exclusion sociale.

Et tout est lié. Cette étude réalisée sous l'égide de l'Unicef France le prouve: pauvreté et exclusion sociale sont bien liées. 

Les 14,5% d’entre eux qui sont en situation de grande ou d’extrême privation voient également leur qualité de vie se dégrader proportionnellement à leur niveau de pauvreté. 

Photo: Lorea Marchand

Crédits: Unicef

http://www.unicef.fr/

Selon cette étude, 7% d’entre eux souffrent d'une "exclusion extrême". Le rapport mesure l’intégration des plus jeunes à l’école, à la maison, ainsi que dans la ville. 

"Vivant dans la précarité, ils se perçoivent aussi, plus en difficulté à l’école ou dans leur famille, plus éloignés du système de soins, plus marginalisés dans leur quartier, plus en insécurité dans leur environnement proche et moins associés à la vie de la collectivité que les autres enfants." 

Unicef

"Plus un enfant est dans la précarité, plus il connaît des difficultés à s'intégrer dans l'ensemble de sa vie", observait ce matin en conférence de presse Michèle Barzach, la présidente d’Unicef France. 

Comme enseignants, nous nous rendons bien compte de tous ces problèmes de précarité, exclusion, harcèlement, entre copains ou violence de la part des parents, défavorisent de plus en plus les droits des enfants et des jeunes ados, diminuent leur intelligence, ne leur permettant pas de faire des études.

https://www.google.fr/

"Les vrais artistes ne méprisent rien ; ils s'obligent à comprendre au lieu de juger." 

Albert Camus

Albert Camus, écrivain, philosophe, romancier, dramaturge, essayiste et nouvelliste français, né le 7 novembre 1913, fut aussi un journaliste engagé dans la Résistance Française (II Guerre Mondiale) et dans les combats moraux de l'après-guerre.

Google a consacré un Doodle pour le centenaire de l'écrivain Albert Camus. Et l'auteur fut aussi à l'honneur "sur les planches marseillaises et aixoises où ont été présentées une création, L'étranger, et deux oeuvres théâtrales, Les justes et Caligula". Trois spectacles fêtent donc le philosophe. Sans oublier l'exposition à Aix-en-Provence.

"Je crois que ce qui est beau chez lui pour les jeunes générations, c'est quelque chose qui peut être appliqué à soi-même et en même temps donner un élan collectif".

Aurélie Filippetti 

Discours d'Albert Camus lors de sa remise au Prix Nobel

L'auteur de La Peste et de L'Etranger est un des écrivains français les plus importants du XXème siècle, probablement le plus connu, cité et traduit à l'étranger. 

Prix Nobel de Littérature (1957) " for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times", il semblait naturel que ses écrits soient célébrés. Mais ni la Bibliothèque nationale de France ni Beaubourg ont acccueilli de rétrospective.

Dommage qu'un auteur aussi connu dans le monde et tellement lu et étudié ( au Secondaire à peine quelques oeuvres ) mais à la fac (études, recherches)  - Littérature, Philosophie - soit si 'oublié' 53 ans après sa mort. Et alors, un centenaire!

http://www.linternaute.com/

Éducation:

Cent ans après sa naissance, Camus continue une figure mythique de la littérature française et mondiale, par "sa pensée visionnaire, sa soif de justice, son ittinéraire exceptionnel".

Ressources pédagogiques: A lire sur le post

"Chaque génération, sans doute, se croit vouée à refaire le monde. La mienne sait pourtant qu'elle ne le refera pas. Mais sa tâche est peut-être plus grande. Elle consiste à empêcher que le monde se défasse." Albert Camus, (extrait du Discours de réception du Prix Nobel de Littérature, 1957)

Europe Code Week

http://codeweek.eu/

Europe Code Week, took place between November 25 and 30, 2013 all over Europe. It was an open source initiative, aiming to connect initiatives that could encourage European citizens and students to learn more about the art and science of computer programming.

"Computer programming is being heralded as the new literacy, yet it is still widely perceived as a skill that can only mastered with a computer science degree. 

With the wider availability of internet connectivity and freely available, easy to use technologies, this is no longer the case."

Technology is shaping young lives, bringing crazy ideas to life, build things that will bring joy to others.

"It's never been easier to make your own app, build your own robot, or invent flying cars, why not! It's not an easy journey, but it's a journey full of creative challenges, a supportive community, and tons of fun."

Why Coding? Read on the post

I am sure you were ready to accept the challenge and engaged you students to become makers?

Credits: http://mashable.com

Sometimes, I share with you some good talks about Education. I think it is important to hear specialists and discuss their ideas.

Today, I would like to share George Siemens, Professor at Athabasca University (Canada), in a talk about changing schools, changing knowledge.

Education:

Interesting, isn't it? Change knowledge needs and structures are influencing the development of new learning systems and models. And it is not easy. 
A good critical talk. He provides a critical evaluation of the testing/evaluation narrative in education and of the future of education.

As an educationalist, I think these kind of talks of innovative thinkers about different subjects touching Education are always very useful to us.

It's up to us reflect and reach some conclusions.

Don't forget to review Education: Stop Natural Disasters wich share some educational  digital resources or World Science Day for Peace and Development at school education sharing educational resources and activities.

I hope that all of you had a great weekend and feel ready for the new week ahead. As I do every month, I've put together a short list of the most popular posts of the previous month. 

Hoping that all of you tried some of my tips, resources or ideas to change your lessons and surprise your students.

Have a great  week !

G-Souto

09.12.2013
Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

November : The most popular posts by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The digital divide? PISA survey 2012

https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/

The OECD’s PISA 2012 tested more than 510,000 students in 65 countries and economies on maths, reading and science. 


The main focus was on maths. Math proficiency is a strong predictor of positive outcomes for young adults. It influences their ability to participate in post-secondary education and their expected future earnings.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) focuses on young people's ability to use their knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges. 

PISA 2012 Results

What students can do

http://www.oecd.org/

This orientation reflects a change in the goals and objectives of curricula themselves, which are increasingly concerned with what students can do with what they learn at school and not merely with whether they have mastered specific curricular content. 

Since the year 2000, every three years, fifteen-year-old students from randomly selected schools worldwide take tests in the key subjects: reading, mathematics and science, with a focus on one subject in each year of assessment. 

The latest set of results from the 2012 data collection (PISA 2012) focuses on mathematics. 

The 2015 assessment will focus on science literacy. The information collected through background questionnaires also provides context which can help analysts interpret the results.

Asian countries outperform the rest of the world in the OECD's latest PISA survey, which evaluates the knowledge and skills of the world's 15-year-olds. "With high levels of youth unemployment, rising inequality and a pressing need to boost growth in many countries, it's more urgent than ever that young people learn the skills they need to succeed," said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría.

China Shangai region easily beats rest of world in maths, reading and science, according to OECD education rankings.

 Photograph: Stringer Shanghai/REUTERS

http://static.guim.co.uk/

Asia rising economic success has helped China's hi-tech corridor to take a clear lead in the latest OECD international education rankings.

The results of the OECD's programme for international student assessment – a triennial exam for 15-year-olds known as Pisa – show that China's Shanghai region easily tops the rest of the world in maths, reading and science.

Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea made up the rest of the top five for maths, followed by Macao.

Key features of PISA 2012

• Content:

The PISA 2012 survey focused on mathematics, with reading, science and problem-solving minor areas of assessment. For the first time, PISA 2012 also included an assessment of the financial literacy of young people.

• Participating countries and economies:

All 34 OECD member countries and 31 partner countries and economies participated in PISA 2012, representing more than 80% of the world economy.

• Participating students:

Around 510 000 students between the ages of 15 years 3 months and 16 years 2 months completed the assessment in 2012, representing about 28 million 15-year-old in the schools of the 65 participating countries and economies. 

• The assessment:

Paper-based tests were used, with assessments lasting two hours. In a range of countries and economies, an additional 40 minutes were devoted to the computer-based assessment of mathematics, reading and problem solving.

Test items were a mixture of questions requiring students to construct their own responses and multiple-choice items. The items were organised in groups based on a passage setting out a real-life situation. A total of about 390 minutes of test items were covered, with different students taking different combinations of test items.

The full survey can be read online

The tablet contents Book I can be consulted here

Languages: available in English; French; German.

Other resources:

PISA Compare your country - PISA 2012: Understand what works in education here

The OECD website offers you the exploration PISA 2012 Mathematics Test Questions.

Same as The Guardian: Are you smarter than a 15-year-old? Try some of the OECD PISA questions 

Some thoughts:

Whatever our opinion on Pisa's methodology, there is one very interesting indicator to reflect on: equity. 

How does initial education reduce or increase social inequities? 

Pisa is just not a school test: it gathers extensive data students' social background, how they approach learning and the characteristics if their schools. This helps develop a full picture of the many social economic and cultural factors that help determinate how well students do in school.

As you know, the European countries education increased social inequalities due the economical crisis. 

I wrote about it on Éducation: parole aux enfants victimes d'exclusion; Child poverty in develped countries; The Hard Times generation.

VISIR | ICT for Learning in Europe

http://visir-network.eu/

On in my presentation at VISIR workshop in Brussels, on the 19 March 2012 at the European Forum on Learning Futures and Innovation, I shared my concern:

"Poverty is clearly a factor in poor access to digital learning technologies and poor performance at school. The link between the two cannot be ignored."

2012 statistics shown the digital divide as a major issue for some developed countries' young people.

Many students in the European countries, such as United Kingdom, France, Portugal live in poverty.

In Portugal, where I was educated and live, it is an unfortunate reality and that increases social inequities in school education. Inequity increase was already the conclusion from the previous study. 

Not only in Portugal. In the United Kingdom, in France too where commentators describe the "French educational system as a system of apartheid"

Read on Café Pédagogique, L'EXPRESSO, G. Felouzis, a sociologist who worked inequality in school education.

And I conclude at the VISIR workshop: 

" Digital divide can harm poor students' education." PISA report shows I was right, unfortunately.

Certainly, our countries are concerned with responding effectively to the educational needs of youth from disadvantaged backgrounds.

While HE teachers are involved in research activities, Primary and Secondary teachers are involved in minimize the digital vs. economical inequality by the art and passion on teaching.

"The transformative power of an excellent teacher is something everyone understands and appreciates on a personal level. High-quality teachers are essential for school improvement and extremely valuable for students' learning."

Andreas Schleicher
Special Advisor on Education Policy, OECD

G-Souto

04.12.2013
Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®


The digital divide? PISA survey 2012 by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.