Posts filed under 'Bureaucracy (Gripes)'
So some five months after the problem first appeared, and two days after my blog made some waves, I finally have a proper school login and email. I’d like to think that last bit of timing was coincidental, but whatever the cause, agitation or patience, I can now send and receive school emails. This may not seem like a big deal, but email is how the faculty communicates. Announcements, meeting plans, collaborative efforts, almost all internal communication is handled via email. This meant I was always hearing about things right before they happened when people asked “Aren’t you heading over to such and such a meeting?”
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May 25th, 2007
I started blogging about work back in January, and despite previous whole-school emails pointing to my website, yesterday’s triggered my first visit from senior management. It was an unfortunate case of differing interpretations, and I’ll get to that soon. First, some background. Feel free to skip ahead if you’re a subscriber.
Background: Several months ago, Edinburgh schools upgraded their IT infrastructure as part of a new contract with BT Synergy. (more…)
May 24th, 2007
In the past two year’s I’ve had the “pleasure” of contributing to the mission statements of two “learning institutions.” Unfortunately, these statements always seem to fall short of asserting any strong educational philosophy. More often than not, they are meaningless exercises in window dressing. So I decided to give it my best go. Below you’ll find my mission statement for public/state education. Tell me what you think.
Public education should aim to provide students with the skills and experience necessary to individually and collectively construct, acquire, evaluate, and apply robust emotive, descriptive, and predictive models of their world.
Noting these tasks are most often performed within the context of a community and recognizing its role as a public service, schools should aim to assure that individual learners understand their role in the healthy operation of society and that in an ever-changing world, a deliberative democracy is most healthy when comprised of individuals holding a diverse set of beliefs.
Update: 2006-04-29. That last sentence is too long and needs some clarification.
April 22nd, 2007
Since I last blogged about refresh and censorship, things haven’t gotten any better. Our security was compromised, resulting in the posting of our students’ names, logins, and passwords on the web. I still don’t have a login, and the entire school network went down today. Unfortunately, our new contract with BT requires that all service go through them. So our senior management has been leaving phone messages all day long. That’s right, they couldn’t reach a real person. As of this afternoon, there was still no reply. We should have staff on site with the permissions and knowhow to handle these issues when they arise. Unfortunately, the BT contract precludes this. (more…)
March 14th, 2007
High stakes testing threatens American education. Well-meaning politicians and communities frightened by a changing world risk hobbling the American educational system, producing a testing leviathan incapable of responding to the challenges of a global economy and destined for mediocrity. Six months ago I accepted a Fulbright teacher exchange to Edinburgh, Scotland, leaving the Bay State and my classroom in Lexington for the home of James Watt and Adam Smith. Now preparing my students for national exams, I think of their counterparts taking the MCAS, and I am compelled to warn of the dangers ahead. (more…)
March 9th, 2007
If you’ve been following the whole Brain Gym thing, you should know that digitalkatie and I sent out freedom of information requests yesterday to each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities. Here’s their contact info. We’re trying to figure out the scale of Brain Gym’s pseudoscientific reach. Either Brain Gym is a minor budgetary blip (costing little or nothing), a worrisome waste of taxpayer money, or something in between. Hopefully, we’ll soon know. Replies should arrive by March. Here’s what we asked for, broken down by year over the past five years: (more…)
February 2nd, 2007
Schools should not by default restrict access to “potentially” inappropriate web content for secondary students. They should monitor usage and crack down upon those violating school policy, limiting and revoking their usage, and saving the innocent from undue intellectual censorship. Play is essential to learning, and should schools limit access to emerging technology out of hand, they risk chilling educational innovation as well as their students’ personal and academic growth. (more…)
January 29th, 2007
The high school finished undergoing refresh a couple of weeks ago, and I still don’t have a login. Refresh is the council’s name for upgrading all of the schools’ computers. In theory it’s a grand idea. Unfortunately, it’s also resulting in the out sourcing and centralization of computer services, which seems ill equipped to meet the idiosyncratic needs of individual schools. Check out what a computer teacher across town has to say about it. Unfortunately, the powers that be have decided to base logins on payroll numbers. As an exchange teacher still payed through my American school, I have no such number. I’ve been told, half jokingly, that it should be sorted by June. It’s not like I need my computer to work. Heck I don’t ever need to write up reports, create worksheets, or enter attendance. This week, however, they did finally get me a login. I can now pretend to be someone else, my exchange mate. So far I have exhibited great restraint in not reading her email. At least I can turn things on and access attendance. For another “cheery” Midlothian perspective, check out my mate John’s posting on the issue, “How Re-freshing.” Keep in mind he is at a different school than me. So this is not an isolated problem.
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January 27th, 2007
- Never have a meeting that could be a memo/email.
- Never require attendance unless imparting job or life critical content.
- If practical, provide refreshments.
January 19th, 2007