Debut of the Education Exchange Corps Online Placement System

It sounds cool, videos make it look great, but the EEC Online Placement System really consists of a bunch of free online applications cobbled together in an expansive network.

That's right. I just debuted a real-time, online scheduling system that costs $0 to maintain (of course, if you don't include the time it takes out of the designer's and maintainer's life!).

I'm a big believer in parceling out responsibility. Education is an issue too big for anyone to tackle alone, but a lot of folks are too busy to dedicate a ton of time every day to making the world a better place.

So why not help them dedicate just a little bit of time to making the world a better place?

Unlike a lot of other civic engagement organizations, the EEC prides itself on the flexibility of its scheduling.

You can only come in on Mondays from 1:00pm-3:00pm? COOL!

You can only get a babysitter every other Friday? FINE BY ME!

You can get off work all day Thursdays? COME HELP OUT SOME KIDS!

The online system takes this process to a new level. Now these folks can go online and CHOOSE the slots they want.

Don't get me wrong. The #1 priority here is helping the kids we work with. There are rules for choosing placements that prioritizes a regular commitment and continuity by those folks looking to share their time.

But more on that later. Let's keep you readers entertained by taking away the reading. Time to crank out some home movies!

Check out how the placement system works from an EEC Member/Volunteer's perspective here: http://screencast.com/t/7s4QAwZcMs

Still a few kinks to work out, but you can check out the whole system at our website at www.eduexchangecorps.org.

More to come!

Dr. King Column

You can find the dataset for the column in the previous post, and you can find the column here:

http://clayton-richmondheights.patch.com/articles/census-data-and-kings-dream-speech-reveal-need-to-address-poverty

I'm planning on using the data in a few other columns too, so here are some highlights:

• Missouri and St. Louis are both ranked 7th as the most segregated state and large metropolitan area, respectively.
• To fully integrate Blacks and Whites residentially in Missouri and St. Louis, almost three quarters of the minority would have to move (or a combination of Black/White movement would have to produce an equal net effect).
• Out of the 74 schools in the St. Louis City school dataset I produced, 51 are at least 75% Black, 36 are at least 90% Black, and 18 are at least 99% Black.
• Without addressing poverty, we cannot really see how much of today's de facto segregation is still a racial issue v. a socioeconomic one.

Dataset for Patch Column

In my column (which I will link once it's online), I reference a dataset that I created from Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. For your benefit, here is the dataset. It includes the St. Louis City Schools and their demographic compositions from 2010.

Feel free to download and play with it. I'll comment more on this once the column comes out tomorrow.

Connecting Blog to Column

In an attempt to get this blog up and running consistently, I am going to connect some posts to my twice monthly education column at Patch.com.

My column can be found here.

Now to upload the dataset that will go with tomorrow's column.

Updated Website

Just finished updating the website. I have to use a drag and drop program to get anything done since I am apparently computer language illiterate, but I think it looks alright.
I updated most of the details from what we did this past summer, what we're doing this fall, and some of the organizational information.

The biggest change, which I hope will allow more people to get involved, is the introduction of the online sign-up form. Now if you're interested in working with the Education Exchange Corps, you can just fill out an online form that gives me enough details to find you a placement.

Check it out at: www.eduexchangecorps.org/get-involved-1

Let me know what you think about the website in the comments.

So sorry--But stay tuned

I have done a terrible job blogging.

No more excuses. Just results.

I am improving the website, looking into funding sources, and I'll keep you all updated as I do.
A lot more to come.

First Story Break: Education Debate at The Economist

Interesting debate at The Economist's website on education.

The motion:

"This house believes promoting maths and sciences education is the best way to stimulate future innovation."

The debate seems to be focused on the future of United States' prosperity rather than on what is best for the children involved.

I used to full-heartedly agree with this motion, but after working with kids for the last 6 years and studying economics for the past 4, I think that future innovation may best be achieved by incorporating as many people in the discussion as possible. That means triggering creative passions in all children, not just the mathematically or scientifically gifted ones.

The "everything in moderation" saying has a lot of truth to it. We can be a really smart country of math whizzes, but that would exclude the great artists and writers from our collective academic focus.

When we try to make something more expansive to involve more people in a set subject, we will undoubtedly have people participating who normally wouldn't (i.e. more would-be-authors will become chemical engineers). That doesn't necessarily improve the quality of the field. In fact, it could very well detract from it, and from the other fields which have lost out on talent (ex. the would-be-author cannot write his would-be Pulitzer-winning story, and instead makes a living as a mediocre polymer lab technician).

Maybe instead of looking for an easily labeled fix, we should try something even more innovative--finding what kids really like doing, and finding ways of incorporating those passions into productive paths, some of which we can only imagine today.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't promote math and science, but we shouldn't allow these subjects to crowd out their equally worthy counterparts.

To see the debate, visit http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/578. I'm sure I'll have more comments in the coming days on this topic.