Annie does not have much to worry about. Gov’t textbooks must be used as core material but teachers may supplement with others. The problem I suppose is when materials have a strong bias one way or another. Conservatives complained loudly about mass use of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth. Internet is full of one sided materials. Even extremist stuff.

Personally the good outweighs the bad to me but maybe not to everybody.

Part 1 of 4

Ann Kidder stumping for the textbook publishers and the educationalists advocating for restrictions to knowledge. Open educational resources versus the approved open educational resources. Open software resources versus the approved software resources. I can go on, but what it is really all about restricting how the 21st century digital tools are used by students, that allows steady profits to be shared about the K to 12 education establishments and the big textbook publishers.

Kidder - ““The world has changed very quickly and a lot of us assume you can find the information you need online — which you can. But a discerning eye for the information is very important,” said Annie Kidder, executive director of the research and advocacy group.” It is code to restrict how, when and where students will access digital content. When doing so, it is restricting knowledge. No better than China restricting social media tools, but does anyone think that the K to 12 education establishment is like China?  Below is the war between open educational resources versus the approved digital education resources and software.

Since the beginning of 2013, the big textbook publishers are behind this new political movement of what Kidder has outlined - “Part of the move to free online resources is budget cutbacks. But unlike buying textbooks that must be on a list approved by the province, “(there’s no) well-established system for vetting the quality of the free online resources that is widely used,” says the report.
While there is a province-wide resource bank for educators, “these teacher-shared materials may be very useful… (but) they do not answer the question of how the education system is ensuring the quality of free online resources.”
Kidder worries about finding materials that reflect Canadian culture and curriculum, and is calling on the government to establish policy to ensure that happens.”

It is where Wikipedia is out, but not the pay subscription of Britannia the school subscribes to. It is based on the perceived quality of the knowledge content. Wikipedia is a great place to obtained content especially for students who are researching for an essay. From there, the student can jumped to the other links provided, to explored and deepen one’s knowledge on the topic. What is the usual rule of schools in 2014? Students and parents are heavily discouraged from using Wikipedia as their starting point. Why? The perceived knowledge content may be questionable. Wikipedia is not pedagogical correct, compared to the school’s paid subscription for Britannia, where knowledge bytes are pedagogical correct and conforms to the curriculum standards of 2014.

Now I used the Wikipedia example, because out in the real world everyone and their brother uses Wikipedia as their starting point. Why? It is free and a open resource. Free open resources and software, in the 21st century has put steady pressure unto the providers of educational content. Once upon a time, the K to 12 establishment had total control over the knowledge content portion of education. I do mean that literally. Total control on how, when, where and what type of knowledge content is access. The 21st century technology has change all that. So the education providers for the K to 12 along with the K to 12 education establishment have stopped fighting the 21st century technology, and decided to join the 21st century technology revolution.

The battle line has been drawn in the sand - Free open educational resources versus the not so free and more expensive restrictive educational resources.

P4E report - “Where is the quality control?
In 36% of elementary and 25% of secondary schools, teachers are most likely to use free online materials when they need new learning resources. This may mean that teachers are accessing fewer Canadian materials, and may not be getting the best possible resources to support the curriculum.”

Yikes!  What is it all about, besides the ideologies of nationalism creeping into the government schools?  The educationalists along with the big global textbook publishers want teachers only to access digital content authored by Canadian teachers and access to the materials is dependent what the schools, school boards and ministries of education has paid for. It may be free for the students but the components of the e-textbooks is restricted to what the schools, school boards or the education ministries have paid for.

Part 2 of 4

”  He said the low interest in e-textbooks is partly because they aren’t all that advanced — basically pdf versions of their paper counterparts. As well, very few are actually approved by the ministry.
“The ministry is very reluctant to allow links inside textbooks,” he said, adding that’s because what’s on them can change, or can lead to other websites that are inappropriate.”  Sure the e-textbooks are another version of a hard copy textbook, because the school boards have either restricted the features of e-textbook readers/apps based on costs or pedagogical correctness. The latter being rather important for restricting students on how they used the e-textbooks. After all can’t have students accessing knowledge that is not approved under the curriculum. What would the world come to, if a grade 5 student was introduced to standard algorithms, the forbidden knowledge in 2014?

Chegg - this is what an e-textbook should look like with all the features - user friendly for students
http://www.chegg.com/etextbooks

Next comes the approved education provider for e-textbooks. http://www.pearsonhighered.com/etextmobile/etextforipad/#!prettyPhoto[gallery1]/0/

And one example - Math Makes Sense - http://www.pearsoncanadaschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PS1fA4&PMDBSUBCATEGORYID;=&PMDBSITEID=5161&PMDBSUBSOLUTIONID;=&PMDBSOLUTIONID=38621&PMDBSUBJECTAREAID;=&PMDBCATEGORYID;=&PMDbProgramID=88501

Just compare - Chegg is popular for students for very good reasons.

That said - “Pearson is a pioneer in using digital and mobile technologies to transform learning. Throughout Canada, students and teachers use Pearson’s learning technologies:” http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1059883/new-interactive-textbooks-for-ipad-and-classroom-assessment-software-premiere-at-ontario-learning-technologies-conference

Now things are getting really interesting…....What is Equella?  A powerful digital repository where school systems can share their most valuable learning content and assets.

Leaning content is tied in with profits….oops I meant to say assets.

‘With the EQUELLA digital repository, school states and districts, Departments of Education and Ministries of Education across states, provinces and territories are improving student performance and outcomes by providing shared access to their most valuable learning content and assets.

With a single point of entry to browse, search, upload, download, update, rate and reuse learning content the repository enables teachers and administrators to share engaging and standards-based digital content to improve their curriculum.”
- See more at: http://www.equella.com/solutions/schools-(k-12)/#sthash.oYKX7cWC.dpuf

The Canadian version - http://www.pearsoncanadaschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PS18Kc

Some more additional information - http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/equella/learning-technology.php

As I said before it all about restricting educational content to the teachers, students and yes if they could to the public. Below is one web site called Open Culture - 200 free educational resources. Apparently the knowledge content is questionable compared to the not so free expensive approved online resources. http://www.openculture.com/free_k-12_educational_resources

Examining the potential and reality of open educational resources: the 2013 COHERE conference - http://www.tonybates.ca/2013/10/26/examining-the-potential-and-reality-of-open-educational-resources-the-2013-cohere-conference/

Using Wikipedia - “Not to be confused with Open education.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching, learning, educational, assessment and research purposes. Although some people consider the use of an open format to be an essential characteristic of OER, this is not a universally acknowledged requirement.
The development and promotion of open educational resources is often motivated by a desire to curb the commodification of knowledge[1] and provide an alternate or enhanced educational paradigm.[2]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources

P4E report - One will get a real good chuckle on this one - “The materials teachers are accessing for free online fall outside
the scope of resources that are approved by the Ministry of Education in its Trillium List, which boards and teachers are required to use to select textbooks.29 The Trillium List includes textbooks either in print or online, that are approved based on their quality, congruence with the curriculum, a “Canadian orientation,” and freedom from bias.30”
http://www.peopleforeducation.ca/pfe-news/7427/

It appears that Kidder omitted freedom from bias. Last time I check, the Trillium List it is filled with bias presentation of knowledge content. Knowledge content is the dividing line. Any knowledge falling outside of the K to 12 education establishment are seen as bias and questionable pedagogy.

Part 3 of 4

Open education resources are redefining teaching.
Three Trends That Will Shape the Future of Curriculum - http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/02/three-trends-that-will-shape-the-future-of-curriculum/

And finally the war - between the free open resources providers to the not so free open resources providers. “Khan Academy, Open Ed. Providers Evolve With Common Core
Strategic move seen as key step for field of open ed. resources:  http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/03/28/27khan.h33.html?cmp=ENL-CM-NEWS1

Back to the P4E report - Kidder is not exactly telling the truth. Nor is she being frank and transparent to the public. The real agenda is to stopped the free open resources from overtaking the public K to 12 system. In the conclusions - “Digital learning brings with it other challenges as well. While the potential to access new resources is now nearly limitless, it remains a concern that at least part of what drives schools to look for free materials is the decline in provincial funding for learning resources. Free online materials are not necessarily
subject to review for quality, relevance or Canadian content and the use of these materials makes considerable demands on teachers’ time and presumed expertise. This important development needs conscious policy.”
file:///C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/Downloads/digital-learning-2014-WEB.pdf

What is often forgotten by the K to 12 advocates of the Kidder type - many teachers and students are driven to used the free resources and open resources because the resources being offered by the K to 12 is often poorer in quality content compare to their counterparts of free open educational resources. I have been through plenty of nights looking for free material, where the recommended sites approve by the educationalists was not conducive for learning. It was a rarity that I found something useful on the e-learning math web sites approved by the school and/or school board. It is quite something to see 20 different methods of multiplication being explained using the constructivist method. One will need to stopped the video, and go back. But of course, there is no button to stop the video, and go back.

I sometimes wonder were the heads of the educationalists are…......let us take a look at what the Ontario K to 12 is offering in e-learning resources. If anything there is no need to vet e-learning resources when the public K to 12 have already done so. 1. The Ontario government - http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teachers/buildingfutures/resources.html  Just scroll down for e-learning -
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/

2. The Ontario Education Resource Bank is worthy of a view. Should be able to get the blood pressure up or at the very least, steam blowing out of your ears. But you will get to understand why I think the vast bulk of e-learning resources being operating of the K to 12 educations system and paid for by the taxpayers purse are of a poorer quality and restricting the learner from learning.

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/bank.html
Now just scroll down to the list. I first selected this one…..Boy was I ever surprise what the content was. Building Vocabulary - Grade 9 - Of course one can’t paste and copy - so the bottom line is students are taught to guess at the word’s meaning by using context. What is discourage is to used a dictionary since that would take away the reading enjoyment and reduces the reading pleasure.

Moving unto Homework Help - Did you know that. Homework Help is run by TVO’s Independent Learning Centre with support from the Ontario government? I did not know the connection between TVO and the Ontario Education Ministry. 
“TVO administers the Independent Learning Centre (ILC), the province’s designated provider of distance learning.” On the ILC site they don’t at all boast about the fact that TVO are the ones in charge of the administration. ” Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education, the Independent Learning Centre (ILC) ) is the province’s designated provider of distance education for independent study. In today’s world of technology and innovation, distance education takes on new meaning and a new identity.  The ILC’s mandate is to provide formal high school education, in both official languages, to provide GED testing, to offer an online math Homework Help service and to support individuals in school through its educational resources.” http://about.tvo.org/who-we-are/jobs-at-tvo/independent-learning-centre

And the TVO web site - http://about.tvo.org/
“For over four decades, TVO has empowered Ontarians through educational media. We are a smart, safe alternative to commercial broadcasters and have evolved from a single TV station to a fully digital media organization for the 21st century. TVO is not fully funded by the province of Ontario. Donor support helps us reach more people in more ways than ever before with quality content that “makes you think.”

Part 4 of 4

Now the bit about Kidder and her pressing concern about - “We do feel as if it’s a bit of a wild west out there in a lot of different ways. We’re not saying it’s wrong or bad, but we are saying we need to think how we can be assured that kids are getting really high quality material, whether it’s free online or not.”

Oh poor baby, not enough teachers or students clamouring to take use of the e-learning resources of TVO slash ILC slash Homework Help? How about looking at the other not so free resources of the Ontario education system.

Just a few - 1. Inspire -Capacity Building Series - for teachers - that first one is mind boggling -  Culturally responsive pedagogy is not about “cultural celebrations,” nor is it aligned
with traditional ideas around multiculturalism. It involves careful acknowledgement, respect and an understanding of difference and its complexities.”
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/capacityBuilding.html

Culturally responsive pedagogy is the new boy or girl for pedagogy correctness in e-learning resources.

2. About Ontario’s e-Learning Strategy - http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/strategy.html

3. Blended Learning - http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/blend.html

4. Homework Help - https://homeworkhelp.ilc.org/index.php

Now where do teachers hang out? On Pinterest - “Ontario Curriculum Educational Materials
For paid or free resources that relate to the Ontario Curriculum K-12 (Please mark paid items with a $ or price, and indicate grade level/subject where possible)”  http://www.pinterest.com/madameaiello/ontario-curriculum-educational-materials/

Now I had some fun pressing on the links. I press a teacher blog link -  http://tangstarscience.blogspot.ca/

I never thought to see a teacher take the year off to travel the world? After all the teachers are always crying poor and yet they must be a very profitable business in selling teacher developed products for teachers to take a year off to travel the world.

The Toronto Star article is all about controlling the knowledge content. It is obvious that teachers in Ontario are not using the not so free e-resources of the K to 12 system, The teachers are going for the open education resources and the big outfits such as Teachers Pay Teachers - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Visual-Way-to-Teach-Order-of-Object-Pronouns-649676

After all there is big money to be made. There has been a few teachers who have become millionaires selling education resources to other teachers. Not a one had to leave their full time job in teaching.

Kidder and others like her wants to put a stop to it and force teachers and students alike to used pedagogical correct, Canadian content and following the current curriculum e-learning resources of poorer quality. Teachers by Teachers interest is to put out good educational resources, some free, some not - so teachers don’t have to reinvent the wheel -  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/About-Us

Of course the big global education publishers don’t like the the new kids on the blocks . Teachers selling to other teachers?  Can’t have that. And perhaps the top educationalists of the K to 12 would like to put a stop to it, because according to the ideologies of ‘ism’ - knowledge content must be pedagogical correct.

Along with the current curricula being dreadful, there is a lot of extremist material in the current curricula.  It appears that the left wants to indoctrinate our children.  This is the problem with state-run schools. 
I still can’t believe Annie Kidder!  How could she support such lousy curricula and try to discourage teachers from trying their best?  I wish I knew what was in it for her—sorry to say, but it’s probably $$.  Also, I’m still confounded by the fact that educrats and politicians, (and Annie Kidder) would allow things to get so bad that children are really suffering and this is all for the educrats and politicians’ personal gain

There is a dead link in part 3 of 4 - http://www.peopleforeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/digital-learning-2014-WEB.pdf

” “Digital learning brings with it other challenges as well. While the potential to access new resources is now nearly limitless, it remains a concern that at least part of what drives schools to look for free materials is the decline in provincial funding for learning resources. Free online materials are not necessarily subject to review for quality, relevance or Canadian content and the use of these materials makes considerable demands on teachers’ time and presumed expertise. This important development needs conscious policy.”

A good question would be why do the teachers need a lot of extra resources outside the textbooks?

Very likely one of the reasons is that teachers have teach at several different levels in each class. Because of social promotion from class to class it seems it is a common occurence to have to teach let’s say a grade 6 class where the students have reading and math skills anywhere between grade 2 and grade 7. If you add the posibility that on top of that you may have one or two students with exceptionalities that have and IEP then one person is supposed to teach at least 4 or 5 different lessons and to keep track of several sets of expectations.
Really? Is that realistic in any shape or form for anybody? It is not good for the teacher becasue the effort is enormous and impossible to do well. It is not good for any of the students because what each group’s learning needs are very different.

On top of that seeing that less is required of your classmate than from you is building in young minds the mentality that it’s not worth puting in an effort since it doesn’t matter much anyway. Is that what we want to tell our kids?

We need to fight for clear standards for students passing from one grade to the next.
Having each and every student in a class have the prerequisite knowledge and skills gives good teaching a chance. It also builds in accountability both for the students and the teachers. And .. I dare to think that quite a few a teachers would be quietly thankful if that happens.

There is endless amounts of research to show that students retained at grade level or placed in segregated classes actually regress.

Social promotion does not work.

When a student passes to the next grade without having the pre-requisite knowledge and skills the student does not progress. It is just that his skill and knowledge gaps are not acknowledged and that allows everybody to save face for a while at the student’s detriment.

The student hasn’t magically learned anything by promoting to the next grade. He is not magically going to learn at double or triple the rate of everybody else during the next year so to close his skill and knowledge gap. Instead of getting the specific, targeted help that he needs sooner rather than later, social promotion insures he will simply fall under the radar until a few years later when he will suddenly(?) become one of the students that cannot pass the grade 10 literacy test or drops out of high school.

My point is students’ skills and knowledge deficits don’t magically cure themselves by social promotion.
The student who do poorly or do not finish high school are in a staggering majority the same students who didn’t do well in grade 6 and the same students who couldn’t read well by grade 3.

Perhaps you should speak to elementary teachers. One their biggest challenges is trying to be everything to everybody. It is simply unrealistic and it hurts everybody: students and teachers.