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Saturday, May 10, 2014

Why Digital Curriculum is a Bad Idea | Missouri Education Watchdog

Why Digital Curriculum is a Bad Idea | Missouri Education Watchdog:



Why Digital Curriculum is a Bad Idea

digital curriculum
Whatever could go wrong with a medical company pushing a product to students?

Missourians and others concerned about the Common Core Initiative and curriculum being online are redeemed.  Representative Mike Lair put $8.00 in the education appropriations budget for tin foil in an attempt to marginalize those who have concerns about not being able to see the curricula their students are studying and on which they are tested.  These worries are proving to be valid.
Researchers are developing a new curriculum to educate children and adolescents about immunization to reduce vaccine hesitancy and improve vaccination rates for this and future generations, according to findings presented here.
Despite advances in vaccine technology and successful elimination of diseases such assmallpox, polio, measles and rubella from the United States and much of the rest of the world, resistance to immunization remains a significant problem, according to Edward B. Lewin, MD, of Georgetown University School of Medicine.
What we’re presently doing to promote immunization is not adequately improving vaccine acceptance or lowering vaccine hesitancy …” Lewin said during a presentation. “It’s actually going in the wrong direction. We need a new approach.”
As a result, Lewin and colleagues launched the Vaccine Education Project, an interactive curriculum focused on educating children, not adults, on the science of vaccination. The project is based on the following concepts:
  • Educate children about vaccine science so they can make informed decisions about vaccination for themselves and eventually their own children;
  • Develop a curriculum that incorporates the use of iPods, social media and a website, intended to be “interactive and fun”;
  • Deliver the curriculum at home to avoid taking up class time;
  • Coordinate with professional educators;
  • Assess the efficacy of the curriculum by measuring students’ knowledge of and attitudes toward immunization.


The curriculum originally consisted of 13 videos to inform students on vaccination. More than 2,000 science teachers were surveyed about the videos in a study conducted by the National Science Teachers Association; 72% said they were “very supportive” of the project.Up to 27% of science teachers expected “pushback” from parents regarding the Why Digital Curriculum is a Bad Idea | Missouri Education Watchdog:


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MAY 06

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MAY 05

Don’t Fall For The Teacher Tenure Boogey Man
Lots of very nice well meaning people were approached by a person standing outside their grocery store or library in the last several months and asked to sign a petition to get rid of teacher tenure so we could “finally get rid of the really bad teachers who were making our school system so awful.”  […]