C4T Summary #3

This month I was assigned to comment on Mr. Chase's blog Autodizactic. The first post that I read and commented on was about the New York City teacher scores and how they could be used in a positive way. It gave me a lot of insight into the issue of the scoring of NY teachers. The teachers were made with the way the scores were taken and they felt they were not accurate. He talks about how if teachers want to see a change made they need to research and produce a better process for scoring and then teach it to those who produce them. The teachers need to have a forum to discuss and understand their scores and the things that need to be worked on and addressed. Instead of complaining about the process they need to take charge and fix it, then utilize it to help them become more successful educators. I agree with what he said needs to be done. The only way to fix the issue is if they take the innovative to do something about it themselves. The reality is if they don't do it no one else will. 

The second post that I commented on was a question raised by an article from Tech presidents about the progress of an Expert Labs project.  Mr. Chase asks the question, "What’s the barrier between Government agencies and civic engagement via social media?” This project is designed to help encourage government agencies to connect with the public through the use of social networks. In order to understand the question fully and get the background on the topic I read the original post by Tech President. It discusses the way that expert labs have tried to implement this program over the past two years. It explains some of the difficulties behind the project and why it has had little success. In his post, he quotes some of the statements given by expert lab and why they believe success has been limited. His post is very thought provoking and I liked the question he asked about the topic. It really made me think and I was very interested to learn more about the project.

The questions being asked and to whom they are being asked has not been as much of a focus by the agencies throughout the project. They really need to work together as a whole agency to produce these questions that truly represent what is being done and what the public would be interested in discussing. They also need to be better about seeking out those in the public who are willing to give knowledgeable and well thought out opinions on the various subjects. There are plenty of people who have researched and would love to help engage in discussions with these agencies. The agencies, as well as the public, need to be more intentional about engaging through social media. These are some of the thoughts that I got out of his post as well as the original article and the things I discussed in my comment.