Marc Prensky‟s Essential 21st Century Skills

An interesting list from a researcher who advocates using gaming models in education.

Video Games & Education

A nice program about video games. Jane McGonigal presents some interesting information about recent research regarding video games and its effects on children and young adults.

Here is the chapter listing to the program. Click through to the main page to view the details.

01. Introduction04 min 53 sec
02. Philip Zimbardo: Perspectives on Time03 min 14 sec
03. Marshmallow Study Experiment08 min 26 sec
04. Time Perspective05 min 58 sec
05. The Secret Powers of Time10 min 12 sec
06. Jane McGonigal: Pro-Social Games05 min 26 sec
07. Negative Impact on Videogames for Males04 min 35 sec
08. Introversion vs. Extroversion03 min 34 sec
09. Schools Changing Curriculum to Engage Children04 min 16 sec
10. Redefining the Hero04 min 28 sec
11. Q1: Failure Rates02 min 48 sec
12. Q2: Game Addiction00 min 40 sec
13. Q3: Causation vs. Correlation02 min 21 sec
14. Q4: Never Ending Games01 min 42 sec
15. Q5: Benefits of Farmville02 min 46 sec

New Org Started By Michelle Rhee

Michelle Rhee, the ex-chancellor of the Washington DC school system has started a new advocacy group that shares many of the views of CAOP.

Take a look at it and join the cause.  It is free.

We will probably start a local group, StudentsFirstD97, soon.

What do you think?

Arnie Duncan's Comments on School Funding in Tough Times

Here are some highlights from a speech that was delivered by US Secretary of Education, Arnie Duncan.

'I believe enormous opportunities for improving the productivity of our education system lie ahead if we are smart, innovative, and courageous in rethinking the status quo.'


'The wrong way to increase productivity in an era of tight budgets is to cut back in a manner that damages school quality and hurts children.

I'm talking about steps like reducing the number of days in the school year, slashing instructional time spent on task, eliminating the arts and foreign languages, abandoning promising reforms, and laying off talented, young teachers.'

'A different strategy for increasing productivity is to improve efficiency by taking steps like deferring maintenance and construction projects, cutting bus routes, lowering the costs of textbooks and health care, improving energy use and efficiency in school buildings, and reducing central office personnel.'

'By far, the best strategy for boosting productivity is to leverage transformational change in the educational system to improve outcomes for children. To do so, requires a fundamental rethinking of the structure and delivery of education in the United States.'

Welcome

This website is dedicated to the discussion of important topics for concerned citizens of Oak Park, IL.

My name is Noel Kuriakos and I am the founder of this group. We at CAOP believe in diaglogue based on information, discussion that drives consensus and decisions that produce effective and efficient results.

As you know there is a school funding referendum under consideration by the D97 board. We are opposed to the size of the proposed amount $75 million and the proposed uses.

If you

• share our views
• would like to continue the conversation
• would like to take part in grass roots efforts to spread the word about our opposition to D97 board's plan
• summit a blog post

please send an email to ca.oakpark@gmail.com.

Please free to post your comments.

Regards,

Noel Kuriakos