Making a connection between technology, training, and sometimes the lack of training, I recall listening to an old episode of GEEK!ED! on which they mentioned the NY Times article (see a counterpoint article here), from a few weeks back, that highlighted a school district giving up on their laptop program. Supposedly this district did not feel that their laptop program was successful enough. Standardized test scores were not rising due to the program and students were misusing the laptops. Brought up by the Geek!ed! crew was the possibility that the teachers, who had students using these laptops, may have received limited training on how to integrate the laptops into their instruction. Possibly there is a need to look at the larger picture of instructional design, not just how to operate the “tool.” I can not recall who said it on the show, but in a clearly frustrated tone, it was mentioned that textbooks certainly aren’t raising scores across the nation so we might as well get rid of them. I am sure Harcourt would love that! Out of all of this, what does the American public see? They see “technology” as being a risky expenditure. I wonder if the NY Times has released an article recently highlighting schools who have been successful with their laptop programs.

IN THE NEWS TODAY

How about that new Microsoft Surface? Saw this first mentioned on the Cool Cat Teacher Blog

Check out the video, just imagine where this will be in 5-10 years. This could be a table in our room, a board on our wall, and a page in a notebook (digital paper fascinates me). For now the price certainly is too high for me to be putting one (or 20) on the end of the year acquisition form. I can just picture my baby boy in 10 years manipulating a digital puzzle on the back of a cereal box. One year ago I would have said 20 years…but the rate of product development and technological discovery surprises me more and more everyday!

SPECIAL THANKS

Goes out to Dean Shareski from Ideas and Thoughts. He was the first person to comment on my teeny blog, and his encouragement and support is truly appreciated! Thanks Dean!

Along with the wonderful discussions and insights I hear from new and old shows on the TechPodZone, I have been reading through and viewing some of the sources from Karl Fisch’s blog, the Fischbowl. His “Did you know?” powerpoint, which has since evolved into numerous creative renditions, has been cited on numerous blogs, and I first heard about the slideshow from Will Richardson at a conference I attended recently. At this same conference, when Will geared his discussion to the use of social networking sites and the familiarity (or lack of) parents and adults have with these sites, I personally was afraid to raise my hand (my fellow teachers already pick on my age enough) when he asked how many people have participated in a social networking site. For the 500 or so people in the audience only 10 people raised their hand. To be honest I have a facebook account, a holdover from my college years. I do not update my facebook account very often, but sometimes I do check back and see where my fellow graduates are now (many in their 4th job since graduating). Just recently I signed up for teachade.com which seems so far to be a professional networking site that is more alive (in a collaborative face to name sort of way) than a traditional “click, submit, and wait” teacher resource drop website. I will have to experiment a little more with the site to see how effective and useful the resources are, but the interest groups and profiles are friendly features which can certainly open the door to collaboration. Time shall tell I guess, I just NEED to keep up with the times…