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Jeffrey Cox

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Education reform

We all have ideas and we all like our ideas to be heard. Everyone should voice their opinions on the things they feel strongly about. However, we should also care enough to voice our opinions about the things that we may not feel as strong about but that are important to our society. Often the passion for these ideas and opinions pushes people towards advocacy. There is a lot of different groups that advocate for different views all with varying degrees of importance. For me education one of the issue that I find to be higher up on the list. There are many reasons that education is important and the videos above and I all of our comments below will pinpoint many of them. I feel that one day future generations will recognize education reform among many of the great turning points in history. Lets exercise our power to create change here through conversation and hopefully stimulate many people to create change through voice and action in there own communities.

Questions to get us started.
What do you think about the current education system in Utah? Do you think it needs to be reformed? What do you think about the increase in private schools? What would you do to "fix the system"? How would you get the rest of the public to become interested in your perspective?

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    Theodore A. Hoppe 200+

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    Feb 18 2013: After finding that schools tests had not changed in since the 1980's, Heidi Hayes complains that we do not need "reform," because "reform only tweaks things" She says "we need new forms, new forms of schools." From TEDxNYED

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsUgj9_ltN8
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    Theodore A. Hoppe 200+

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    Feb 18 2013: How about "flipping" the classroom? The Flipped Classroom is a student focused model.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a7NbUIr_iQ

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H4RkudFzlc

    Here is how easy it is to set up
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ef8uY8AuWg
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    Theodore A. Hoppe 200+

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    Feb 18 2013: I know little about Utah's educational system, but if it like other public school systems, have a look at this TEDx Talk. It addresses a major question in education; how do we keep kids interested in math?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebJHzpEy4bE

    This lead me to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_8OAfHg0CP4#!

    Math for younger kids

    mathcast
    A "mathcast" is a math video lesson. Most of the mathcasts here on Mathtrain.com, are student-created, via Mr. Marcos' Tablet PC. The videos capture the student's pen strokes and voice. All of our lessons are unscripted, so you get to hear the students explaining the problems in their own words.

    http://www.mathtrain.com/
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    Pabitra Mukhopadhyay 30+

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    Feb 17 2013: My son is finishing junior school this March. When I was his age I had few questions about education system of my country and now, 4 decades later the question list grew longer. I do not know about Utah's education but I am enlisting few of my unanswered questions in the hope that these may lead you the direction of a reform.

    1. Is paid education a service or a commodity?
    2. Why education systems all over the world are directed to earning potential?
    3. Why education systems are regimental, like students have to be grouped according to ages?
    4. Why all over the world arts always figure lower in priority compared to science in education?
    5. How educational courses can cope up when technologies change twice in a year?
    6. How come most education systems assess learners and not educators?

    Good luck.
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    Gail . 50+

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    Feb 9 2013: 1. I don't know a thing about the educational system in Utah, so my opinion would be worthless.
    2. same
    3. Increase in private schools? If they are mere extensions of the public ones, what a waste.
    4. To fix the system? Make it relevant and meaningful. Thus, make it more complete. Take it out of the US Dept of Commerce and make it a stand-alone department. Right now, the U. S. Dept of Ed has as its mission statement that it exists to prepare students for global competition. Think about all of the things that it does NOT stand for, and how preparing students for global competition actually harms students (and ultimately society greatly. Untie education from money.
    5. How to get the public interested in my perspective? Impossible for as long as society is structured as it is (and for as long as money is its god)

  • george lockwood 20+

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    Feb 8 2013: Who would know what education reform really is?
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