Could PBL be the Solution to Education Reform?

Guest post by Bradley Lands  | Cross posted at The Landscape of Learning

At the behest of politicians, educators nationwide have been told to view students as statistics, not as individuals, and to view the purpose of the educational enterprise as raising test scores rather than developing capable minds [1].

While I was taking a survey today about Response to Intervention (RTI) I began to reflect about how RTI and Data-Driven Instruction have affected my school.  In the past few years, I have noticed teachers becoming overwhelmingly stressed about Standardized State Tests.  Teachers feel like they don't have enough time to lesson-plan in order to appropriately meet the needs of their students.  Moreover, teachers feel that the precious planning-time in which they do get is being wasted during team meetings and other scheduled events.  Teachers are becoming depressed because they are feeling like they are doing their students a disservice by "teaching to the tests" and there isn't anything that they can do about it.  This unfortunately creates an extremely negative atmosphere that is contagious to all valued stake-holders in a school system.

6 Reasons Why You Should Use 6 Laptops in Your Classroom

Guest post by Bradley Lands  | Cross posted at The Landscape of Learning

The 1:1 student to computer ratio initiative is a great goal for schools to have. I mean, what school would not want each of their students to have access to a personal laptop computer? The problem is that most schools can't afford to spend the kind of money that it takes to provide each student with a laptop, especially when the nation is trying to climb out of a recession. Moreover, lots of schools are not budging on their Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, preventing students from bringing their own technology devices to school such as their phones, ipods, tablets, e-readers and laptops.