Current Educational Issues (CEI's)
As you read in the Course Orientation, you will need to write 8 Current Educational Issues papers, post them on their individual discussion board, and then respond to others' papers. You may select which 8 weeks you would like to read and report on a current educational issue. This allows you to look at your workload in this class and other courses and decide what works best for you. You may only do one paper per week so do not procrastinate, thinking you will do them all the last couple of weeks. You should read the postings each week and feel free to comment anytime even if you have not posted that week.
The instructions for the CEI's are as follows: You should select at least one topic that you find on the TV newscast, in the local newspapers, from ASCD SmartBrief, or through Education Week that is of interest to you. The source needs to be documented. When selecting articles to report on, be sure to select articles that deal with educational issues, not teaching strategies. Hopefully you will find that these sources will provide some good teaching ideas, but the focus of this assignment is towards educational policies and decisions concerning education and their impact.
- Read the article.
- Summarize the key points for your class. (5 points)
- Explain any connections this issue has with the foundations that we have studied to that point in the term or impacts it would have on you as a teacher. (4 points)
- Read your class members' posts.
- Comment on at least two other posts. The post should be more than "neat" or "that's interesting." State your opinion about the issue and its connections to our foundations. (3 points for each of the first 2 comments.)
When you are ready to post an entry for your Current Educational Issues, there are two ways to do so. One way is to find the discussion tab on the left navigation, click on it, and then scroll down until you find the specific CEI to which you are posting. Then you select that discussion and post there. The second way is to find the modules tab on the left navigation, click on it, and then scroll down to the very last module on the page. This has all of the CEI's in order. Remember that you need to post on each of the eight CEI's and you must do so in order. Start with CEI 1 (as it is due first), then CEI 2, 3, etc.
Register
To help you to easily find information for the Current Educational Issues assignments, please go to the websites below and sign up for the free subscriptions. You many submit your first CEI as soon as you would like, but remember, only one per week.
- Register for ASCD's SmartBrief emails.
- Register for Education Week daily emails.