Me Think Big Thoughts

     My Chrome app of the day is Socrative.  It's an interactive questioning app that you can use for immediate feedback that can be used for formative assessment or to activate student schema.   Students can enter their responses via any device. Question formats include T/F, multiple choice, and short answer.  You can use quizzes, exit slips, or quick questions.   For my artifact, I created a survey for students to complete before beginning the novel The Outsiders.  Students can prepare for our class discussion that centers on our unit's essential question: "What is the relationship between money and happiness?"  I have linked you to a pdf file, but the actual application allows students to answer the questions anonymously and then graphs an entire classroom's response.  This link may or may not work:  Money and Happiness Survey

***** This Week's Reflection ******

     Please tell me you all laughed out loud when you read this week's question.  We have gone from the basic"tell me about how social bookmarking worked for you" to the esoteric "reflect on how the concept of Open Source content is compatible with educational philosophies such as the concept of the democratization of knowledge and development of an educated population."  Did I just travel through time to Educational Philosophy 101?  Is the crux of this question WWJDD? (What would John Dewey Do?)  Or is this a merely a preview of the PARCC question that my ELL 8th-grade students will have to answer this year?

Of course Open Source content is compatible with the democratization of knowledge. If you believe in equal access to a quality education, then you believe in the accessibility of open, distributed, quality Open Source content.  However, any  ideal can crash and burn when it hits reality.  The powerful like to keep a tight rein on power, and equal access make some shudder with elite fear.  Further, any venture that can shift from being lucrative to being freely-accessed will certainly rally the troops to brandish "Open+Source=Communism" signs and pitchforks. Honestly, this is not a question I struggle with on a daily basis, although the heart of the question is probably why we all try to be our best each day for the students in our classrooms.  So sayeth John Dewey: