The Trusted Authority for Starting, Improving, & Selling Private Schools: 2008-02-24

Hi Inner Circle Member:

My Canuck's hockey team lost last night in a shoot-out and is now in 7th place (only 8 teams make the playoffs). For those of you familiar with Canadian sports, hockey ranks number 1 in our sports culture, while it ranks somewhere after monster truck racing in the US. There are less than 20 games left in the season, so I am rooting for my hockey team to make the playoffs.

On different note, I received a few emails from readers commenting on last week's eNewsletter and the In The News story about A School That's Too High on Gizmos. Many commented both ways; some felt that technology was critical to a sound education, while others felt that it was only 1 of many tools to support the learning process, and emphasis should be placed on reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Today in my eNewsletter I am going to spend time looking at the computer in education and whether it really helps students learn.

Enjoy the eNewsletter,

Doug Halladay

President and Founder
Halladay Education Group Inc.
www.HalladayEducationGroup.com

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In This Issue

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1. In The News

2. Services That Your School Needs

3. Do Computers Help Students?

4. Products To Invest In To Start And Manage Your School

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1. In The News

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New Christian education that's decidedly old

Dallas Morning News - Dallas, TX, USA

Douglas Wilson, one of the founders of Logos, observes that outside CCE circles "most conservative private schools have a sense of church history that goes ...

The Cost of Learning

RedOrbit - Dallas, TX, USA

But many educators believe the existence of solid private schools helps to raise the bar for teachers and pupils throughout the area. ...

Hawaii private schools raising tuition fees

Honolulu Advertiser - Honolulu, HI, USA

Tuition at major private schools in Hawai'i is rising again, with officials attributing most of the increases to competitive faculty salaries and the rising...

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2. Services That Your School Needs

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>>> (1) Strategic Planning

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>>> (3) STARTING YOUR OWN SCHOOL

Starting a private school can be very challenging and you never have a 2nd chance to make a first impression. This is why you need a firm that has experience starting schools in USA and Canada. Our services are broken down into the following:

1. One-Day Comprehensive Overview Session

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If you would like more information about my services and range of fees related to help start your school, please call me at 1-604-868-0002, email me at info@halladayeducationgroup.com, or click on the following link to download my brochure outlining our services and fees:

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3. Do Computers Help Students?

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What tweaked today’s article was the response to an article in last week’s eNewsletter about a new public school in Philadelphia that had spent millions on every cutting-edge technology on the market, yet many of the staff felt demoralized about their ability to teach. Many of my Inner Circle readers responded in kind and felt a level of sympathy for the teachers, while other thought that the teachers may not have been the right choice to implement the school’s vision.

Some of you may know that my professional background included a 3 year stint as a Senior Curriculum and Resources Coordinator with BC’s Ministry of Education. In this role I led the development of about 20 percent of the province’s K-12 curriculum, known as IRP’s. Two of the IRP’s I am proud to have developed were Technology Education and Information Technology. At the time, both cutting-edge curricular guides for teachers using and teaching technology as a means and end.

As I was reflecting on their comments and viewpoints on technology in education, I came across another article in the February 27/08 National Post with the headline, “Computer Use May Not Help Students.” I am going to share some excerpts from the article to provide some more thought on computers and education.

The article started off with the provocative statement from a report commenting that “filling classrooms with computers does not seem to be making students any smarter and may actually be harming the education of younger children.”

The article referred to a study completed by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy think-tank. It cited several international studies that found students with less access to computers earned higher grades in math, reading, and science.

The author of the report, Michael Zwaagstra, stated that more computer access did not automatically mean a better education…the push to make students computer literate could come at the cost of teaching them such basic subjects as reading by cutting into class time.

He counters that he is not a Luddite trying to say there should not be any computers; just a balance.

His concerns are not at the high school level, but rather at the primary school level. He wonders what is the sense of teaching a Grade 2 how to use a computer when more time and funding could be focused on the basics of reading and math.

His report found that when variables such as household income were considered, students with the most access to computers at home and school had lower scores in math, reading, and science than students with less computer access.

The report concluded that computer use did not increase academic achievement.

As a former classroom teacher and developer of technology-based curriculum, my thought is that it is not the computers fault entirely (or other technology-based learning tools). Yes, foundation skills for literacy and numeracy need to be taught well. However, technology can be used as a tool to enhance and expand learning – just as we use it as a tool in our workplace (like I am doing right now).

The problem lies in not providing enough funding to educate teachers on how to use their technology. You will notice I did not mention spending more money on buying cutting-edge technology. I learned a long time ago that you can never keep up with the technology race, so why try. Just support teachers learning the balance of traditional and computer-based instruction to help children learn better.

If you would like to comment on this eNewsletter, please click on the following link and add your comments on my blog.

---> http://halladayeducationgroupinnercircle.blogspot.com/

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4. Products To Invest In To Start And Manage Your School

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To your success,

Douglas Halladay
President and Founder

Halladay Education Group Inc.