Franklin Schargel’s Blog

Those of us who use Apple Computer products (the IPhone, IPad, IBook, or IMac) know about ITunes University.  This free application (app) is available at the ITunes store.  It gives the learner (either a student or a teacher) access to complete courses from leading universities and other schools as well as the world’s largest digital catalog of free education content. The catalog includes more than 500,000 free lectures, videos, books and other resources on thousands of subjects from Algebra to Zoology.  Learners can browse collections from education and cultural institutions in 26 countries – including Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford, US Berkeley, MoMa, the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress.

I have completed the writing of my next book tentatively titled< “Preventing School Violence” and have developed a workshop regarding this issue.

I have also written a “White Paper” on preventing bullying and cyberbullying.  You can obtain it, for free, in one of several ways.  Go to the “Resources” section on my homepage and look up bullying, go to eyeoneducation.com and check out their white papers or send me an email @ [email protected] and I will send you a pdf. copy to distribute to your staff.

 

The Online Colleges website has presented a closer look at what graduates can expect when they enter the current job market.

What Employers Look For

What attributes are most important?

#1.   Degree Major

#2.  Held Leadership Role

#3.  Extra curriculars

#3.  High GPA

#5.  Volunteer Work

#6.  School Attended

Attributes Employers Look For In A Resume: Team Player, Leadership, Communication Skills, Problem Solving, Strong Work Ethic

73.4% of employers plan to screen by GPA in 2012.

65.4% of employers reported a GPA cutoff of 3.0.

Top Hiring Industries:  Educational Services, Health Care and Social Assistance, Professional, Science and Technical Services, Finance and Insurance, Manufacturing, Utilities, Information Services, Management of Companies

Top Pay (2012 versus 2011)

Business +1

Communication + 3.8

Computer Science +2.4

Education +4.5

Engineering -0.4

Health Sciences -.07

Humanities +.5

Math and Science +2.5

I am indebted to Bonnie Bracy-Sutton who shared this with me.

I am a firm believer in interactive education.  Passive or dependent education doesn’t work for all students.  They are actively involved in sports, computer activities, etc.  To expect them to sit still in classes listening to teachers lecturing doesn’t do it for an increasing number of students.  The video below show a case study of how one teacher uses games to teach students (including special education students).

New research presented at the American Psychological Association‘s annual meeting suggests that a teen spreading false, embarrassing or hostile information online about a peer isn’t really as prevalent as all the attention might suggest. Despite all the hype, traditional bullying is far more common than cyberbullying.

Most young people aren’t victims of cyberbullying, finds a study by Michele Ybarra, research director at the non-profit Center for Innovative Public Health Research in San Clemente, Calif. In two unpublished nationally representative studies “” one of 1,158 youths and the other of 3,777 adolescents “” 17% said they’ve been bullied on the Internet in the past year; 83% said they had not.

Psychologist Dorothy Espelage, of the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, has been studying bullying for 18 years, including the old-fashioned face-to-face bullying and the online variety. She says her research about cyberbullying found the same 17% figure.  Parental monitoring of their children’s computer use makes a real difference in whether kids bully.  “They may be less likely to engage in perpetration in school and in perpetration online,” Espelage says. “We know in criminology and sociology, the No. 1 predictor of any involvement in at-risk behavior is parental monitoring. It seems to be showing up confirmed in the face-to-face (bullying) and seems to be important in the online context.”

Another study she co-authored that was also presented at the meeting found that those who are victimized are more likely to be perpetrators themselves. The researchers found that kids who were victimized face-to-face by peers at school were more likely to go online and engage in cyberbullying, to retaliate against what was happening at school.

We know that many of you have started to drive innovation using iPad in your schools. With iPad, there is a wonderful range of engaging experiences for our students across apps and new interactive textbooks that give us opportunities to explore new ways to teach.

Apple runs a service called iTunes U that gives teachers the ability to build full courses using apps, books, video, and the web in a single app on iPad for students.  Previously, this service was only available to universities, colleges, districts, and schools.  However, starting immediately, Apple has opened up its iTunes U service so that any teacher can build private courses for iPad.

For those of you teaching in iPad one-to-ones, this might be a great new resource. Just go to Itunes University on your web browser or for those of you using a Mac, go to ITunes.

It seems as though every day we hear bad news about higher education. Tuition is rising, nearly 40% of all college students fail to graduate even in six years, and many of those who do graduate can’t find jobs“” yet are saddled with debt.  And nearly 40% of all college students fail to graduate within six years.

While young people continue to be pushed to get a college degree, some are finding alternatives that suit them better. One of those alternatives is “certificates.” These are credentials awarded for vocational programs that prepare students for specific jobs, in fields ranging from metal working to office management. Getting a certificate usually takes two years or less. It is cheaper than a four-year degree, for both students and taxpayers (federal grants and loans are available for certificate programs).

The authors of a new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce cite data that on average, getting a certificate increases wages by 20% above what a high school graduate would earn. Many certificate holders earn more than graduates who have associate’s or bachelor’s degrees. In computer and information services, average earnings for certificate holders are $72,498 per year for men and $56,664 for women.  Mostly community colleges and vocational, alternative schools offer these certificates,

There’s a debate going on in this country over whether everybody ought to go to college. Though college should be available for all students, a four-year degree is not the route for everyone. Certificates offer those with a vocational interest opportunities solid job prospects for less time and money (and thus lower debt) than do many four-year degrees.

One of the most popular things on this blog has been “25 Things That Will Be Extinct in 25 Years”.  I am currently putting together another 25 More Things That Will Be Extinct in 25 Years.  In the meanwhile enjoy the following,  It was sent to me by my friend Harvey Lawrence.

1. The Post Office:  Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that  there is probably no way to sustain it long term.  Email, Fastway, UPS and Fed Ex have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive.  Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Check:  Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheques by 2018.  It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks.   Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check.  This plays right into the death of the post office.  If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of  business.

3. The Newspaper:  The younger generation simply doesn’t read the newspaper. They certainly don’t subscribe to a daily delivered print edition.  As for reading the paper online, get  ready to pay for it.  The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to  form an alliance.  They have met with Apple, Amazon,and the major cell   phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book:  The e-reader has already largely replaced books for the pleasure  reader. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. Many said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes because they wanted hard copy CD. When they discovered they get albums for half the price without ever            leaving home to get the latest music, they changed their minds. The same thing will happen with books.  You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book.  Just think of the convenience!  Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you’re lost in the story, can’t wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you’re            holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone:  Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don’t need it anymore.  Most people keep it simply because they’ve always had it.

6. Music:  This is one of the saddest parts of the change story.  The music industry is dying a slow            death.  Not just because of illegal downloading.  It’s the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it.  Greed and corruption is the problem.  The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing.  Over 40% of the music purchased today is “catalogue items”, meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists.  This is also true on the live concert circuit.  To explore this fascinating and  disturbing topic further, check out the book, “Appetite for Self-Destruction” by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, “Before the Music Dies.”

7.  Television:  Revenues to the networks are  down dramatically.  Not just because of the economy.  Many people are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they’re playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV.  Prime time shows  have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator.  Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds.  It’s time for the cable            companies to be put us out of our misery.  People will choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The “Things” That You Own:  Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future.  They may simply reside in “the  cloud.”  Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents.  Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be.  But all of that is changing.  Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest “cloud services.”  That means when you turn on a     computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet.  If you click an icon, it will open something in the            Internet cloud.  If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud.  And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider.  In this virtual world you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That’s the good news.  But will you actually own any of this “stuff”, or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big “Poof?”  Will most of the things in our lives be disposable  and whimsical?  It makes you want to run to the cupboard and pull out            that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.
9. Privacy:   If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy.  That’s  gone.  It’s been gone for a long time anyway.  There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone.  But you can be sure that 24/7,            “They” know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View.  If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to            reflect those habits.  “They” will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.