21st Century Learning #106: Bill Campbell on Tablet PCs

This week I listened to a discussion on Ed Tech talk led be Bill Campbell on the feasibility of Tablet PCs use in schools. I chose this topic because I am familiar with the technology discussed. I was interesting in this discussion because I was surprised that tablets would be considered for students bellow college level.

The school implementing the tablet program is the Dwight Englewood School. The Dwight Englewood School is a one to one school meaning all the students have a computer. At first it seems like a good idea but it is entirely infeasible in schools outside of the private realm. This discussion was not as much about the use of tablets as it was giving the students and teachers the tools they need to succeed.

Both sides of the discussion were well represented but I felt that it was overkill. I don’t think the use of technology needs to be as complicated as it gets. Technology such as tablets and laptops are great for students but they are tools and should not replace all manners of traditional learning in my opinion.

After I listened to this Ed Tech Talk discussion, I realized that I should have chosen a different topic because of my familiarity with the topic. I found it frustrating to listen to because it reminded me of technical team meetings that I was once involved with. I always felt that the discussions were always needed but also went in circles with no clear end in sight. I used to find these discussions would often start because different staff members used the discussion to create reasons to go on expensive “exploratory” trips much like the ones brought up in this discussion.

I am not sure that I would recommend listening to this discussion because it is not relevant to educators in public schools and regularly funded private schools. The one to one approach that the Dwight Englewood School uses, is at best an experiment that will cost the school and parents a great deal of money. Technologies such as tablets and laptops have a place in schools as tools and nothing more.

http://www.edtechtalk.com/21cl_106

https://www.d-e.org/podium/default.aspx?t=125618&rc=1

Ed Tech Talk K12 Online Conference

I attended the K12 online conference this evening and found it to be very interesting. The Ed Tech Talk interface was user friendly and worked well. The Ustream interface was a little glitch but worked for the majority of the show. I enjoyed Silvia Tolisano’s presentation about the need for global awareness. I recently talked to a teacher about the use of Flat Stanly and thought that the build a bear project was quite similar. Silvia did a great job of explaining how the build a bear project and amazing race project worked. Students became active participants in their learning experience as the bear made its way through China. Students in higher grade levels became engaged in the amazing race project with the use of several different challenges. I liked that Silvia explained how she used technological tools such as an IPhone to bring China to life with the use of her blog. The new project being completed for Egypt sounds like great fun to be involved with. Students need to be prepared to be a part of an interactive and integrated global community. Getting children to interact with each other around the globe is a great way to make learning active. The link bellow will take you to the Silvia Tolisano’s Ustream. I highly recommend this presentation!

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2391923

Technology I See Happening

Windows 7 will drop like an atom bomb in the next two days and I can’t say enough about it. I have been beta testing Windows 7 for about a year now and have found it to be light years ahead of any other version of Windows. Microsoft has not hit a home run like this since the advent of Windows 95. One interesting thing about Windows 7, for all of those who are interested, is it is much lighter than its predecessor Windows Vista. Windows 7 can bring computers that are teetering on replacement back to life. Only Linux could make that claim until now. For schools, the advent of Windows 7 should be looked as more than a new added expense, it should be embraced and put into action sooner than later. School systems can now reevaluate their existing computers potential and may actually save money with the use of Windows 7. The three words that I would use to describe the OS are stable, secure and light. Microsoft is also making Windows 7 available to educators and students at great discounts. I am not a pitch man for Microsoft, in fact, I have been a big fan of Linux for quite a while, but this version of Windows has brought me back to Microsoft. It is about time!

“How can, we as teachers, provide equal access to the digital world to all students.”

The answer to the question is concrete in some situations and philosophical in others. Some school districts may provide mandates for the implementation of technology in the classroom. An educator, who faces technology in a school district that does not define how to implement it, has to ask the question, do I change the entire class structure for one or two children? Either way the answer could be frowned upon. I would tend to fall in the middle of the discussion. I would address the problem with the parents to get an understanding of the situation then discus acceptable workarounds. I don’t want parents to feel like I am being sneaky or circumventive with the use of a workaround. If an assignment required the use of Power Point, and a student was forbid to use a computer, I would have the student look at the assignment in a low tech manner. With the use of conventional resources such as books, magazines and newspapers I would have the student make the equivalent to a Power Point slides on paper. I would not change the assignment for the entire class but I would edit the assignment for the effected student. The other issue that comes into play is making sure the student is not alienated. With children and teens it can be an almost insurmountable task avoiding alienation. I would try to be proactive by discussing effective low tech approaches to help the student feel included in the class process. It comes down to the use of tact. I don’t think this is one of those questions that has a 100 percent perfect response because every teacher, student and parent is different.

Evaluating Websites

It is ironic that the first place I looked to answer how to evaluate websites is the internet. I have learned that questions in education are scrutinized on the internet. I found that Lesley University had detailed criteria that educators can use to weed out good sites from bad. The criterion is similar to the list posted in our course documents. The site also contains a few good examples of sites that are not acceptable.

The how can be achieved by following time tested methodology, but the why is extremely important and needs to be internalized. I have watched, on countless occasions, educator’s use the internet without regard for the risk they are taking looking at unscrutinized websites. Many educators count on the school firewall. That could not be more wrong! I have witnessed educators plagiarize and brake copyright laws on a regular basis. Educators who don’t do their due diligence risk committing career suicide. One mistake can create a snowball with long term consequences.

Many educators assume they only need to look at internet materials for content but they should also understand how to legally use good information. I have known educators who find a websites they like, who then pull text and images from those sites for use with Power Point. Many educators do not realize that all images on the internet, unless expressly written otherwise, are covered by copyright law.

The internet is a valuable tool, but its use comes with heightened responsibility. There are entire books dedicated to the appropriate use of the internet. I have only touched upon a few of the reasons to review websites, the one that resonates the most with me is, if I don’t take website review seriously it could cost me my job and possibly more.

1.Lesley University Web Site:
http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/research/evaluating_web.html

2.A great resource for Power Point Images:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

3.This article is excellent:
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/02/04/Hillsborough/Taming_technology_for.shtml

4.One of the books I looked at:
Web of Deception
Misinformation on the Internet
Edited by Anne P. Mintz
Foreword by Steve Forbes

The World Is Open Chapters 7 and 11

This week’s reading of The World Is Open left me with a few impressions that are both positive and negative. As the name of the book suggests, we live in a world that thrives on information that is delivered in ways that challenge convention. Whether it is learning using YouTube or broadening our horizons communicating with other cultures via Livemocha education and its reach has expanded globally. Globalization of education with Web 2.0 gives education tangibility never available in the past.

I absorbed the information from our reading this week and feel The World Is Open is optimistic about the new advancements created by Web 2.0. I am a big fan of technology and it has had a positive impact on my life, but I feel that the book is a little too optimistic about the use of new technological resources. Bonk (2009) stated, “Clearly, the top-down, expert-driven, and often boring lecture-based forms of learning have given way to learner empowerment and revamped notions of teaching and learning” (p. 328). I agree with that statement but I am also a little bothered by it. Traditional education may be less global and more limiting, but it has built in controls that safeguard the type of information presented. As we went over in class, the internet houses a great deal of misinformation and has little control over it. The book talks about Wikipedia and shines a favorable light on it but as a resource it is unreliable. The book presents several different resources to us but does not look at the possible dangers related to their use. I feel the use technology is educationally important but needs continual oversight to make it reliable and less dangerous to the educators and students who use it.

Bonk, C. J. (2009). The world is open. San Francisco: Jossey Bass