New curriculum selection process delayed— new RFP must be issues now

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05/25/2018 13:26

Subject: New curriculum selection process delayed— new RFP must be issues now

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Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Discovery Ed is just another high margin, bad content experiment in computer digital teaching for K-5. Moves farther and farther away from "learning by doing" or practicing anything or from hand/memory learning and consists of CONSTANT group and individual SCREENTIME.

It's practically online teaching. terrible for children.

Sounds we're at very real risk of having this shoved down our throats. At the BOE meeting where the JHU report was presented there was still chatter about digital divide and getting low income kids devices. This is the opposite of what I'm looking for as a parent.

I'm not a complete luddite, I know videos can be compelling to kids. But a video is not reference material. How do you get back to that one point you realize you didn't catch without re-watching an entire video. Or worse watching several to find the one that had the point. By using a physical book, there's a memory of where key points are, and past lessons aren't necessarily disposed of. (With the math packets, they are literally disposed of, DC's teacher collects them for recycling when handing out the next one. So no one is under the illusion that they'll need that knowledge again.)

Online adaptive lessons have their place, too. But MCPS doesn't need to buy that with the curriculum, or at the very least they shouldn't buy a curriculum solely for digital content. And, I think they have their limitations, because they take ownership away from the student. As soon as answers are correct the material gets more difficult, so the student isn't as aware of individual concepts in isolation. There's also the push to call a problem "rich" simply because it asks a student to do three things at once. Yes, that makes a question more difficult, but is it better? For me at least, math is about cutting through the noise and extracting a key concept even if that's something simple.

For example, there will be a questions like, "what is the sum of the divisors of 14?" Which is more difficult than, "find a divisor of 14." Or even, "find all the divisors of 14." But is it a better question? It's an easier question to program, because there are no formatting issues, and there is a single integer answer. But if the lesson is divisors, summing them is just busy work and a distraction, unless this is leading to a discussion of the significance of such a sum. Maybe on this point, I am a luddite, but I can't help but notice how often questions are chosen to suit the technology, and not vice versa.

Opposite of what we want as well. Opposite of what top privates do and other (truly) top public school districts. Overuse of tech/screens + underuse of real teaching will be a deal-breaker for us. I don't like that it is 20 minutes * 3 times in K-2 already. And such low quality games.

That is a HUGE underestimation IME.

My K kid is on a Chromebook easily for an hour daily. The Chromebook station is always used for Math/Reading time when the kids rotate around and they have extra Chromebook time regularly. That does not even include the time on the Promethean Boards.