Fascinating International Study

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) wanted to find out the philisophies of Scandinavian countries, whose students have outperformed students from other countries in a recent test of math and science skills.  They learned that educators in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark believe that teacher autonomy, project-based learning, and nationwide broadband Internet access are keys to their success.  I read about this in April 2008 issue of eSchool News. 

These three countries have vastly different philosophies from the USA.  They do NOT have standardized testing, competitive grading, and top-down accountability.  They also have pre-school programs between ages 4 and 7 that stress self-reflection and social behavior, not academic content.  The pre-school programs help students take responsibility for their own learning.  Additionally, the countries have social programs that provide families with support; poverty and extreme wealth do not exist. 

Interesting, isn't it?

Create Free Video Tutorials with Jing

I have been using Camtasia, a TechSmith product, for several years now. I love it...it is easy to use and there are many rendering options. Creating video tutorials does the trick when I am not able to meet with folks face-to-face. Jing is a free screen capture program, also made by TechSmith. It lacks some of the slick editing features of Camtasia, but its simplicity and sharing options make it worth it. A few days ago, a teacher asked for help with grading collaborative projects using the Moodle gradebook. I was unable to meet with the teacher, and writing out the steps would have taken 30 minutes or more. I fired up Jing and created a short video within five minutes. I was able to send a link to the video to this teachers and all the other 8th grade social studies teachers who might also want to know more about the Moodle gradebook.

Jing even offers free server space to upload videos. I highly recommend that all teachers and administrators download and try out Jing this summer!