The prep time to create charts that utilize any effects over-and-above what you would already do with a laptop and LCD projector feels clearly developed by those with a disconnect to the precious time we have in education and the many hats we already wear. Additionally, while these boards were initially meant to help less-tech savvy teachers to embrace technology use, their hefty training time and prep time serves as its own gatekeeper for more than just tech tentative teachers.
I ask you: Do we really want to spend thousands of dollars on a tool that makes stand-and-deliver instruction easier?”
In a growing number of simulations, ranging from the off-the-shelf SimCity and to Muzzy Lane's Making History to MIT's experimental Revolution and Supercharged, students -- even elementary school children -- can now manipulate whole virtual systems, from cities to countries to refineries, rather than just handling manipulatives.
In Education Simulations's Real Lives, children take on the persona of a peasant farmer in Bangladesh, a Brazilian factory worker, a police officer in Nigeria, a Polish computer operator, or a lawyer in the United States, among others, experiencing those lives based on real-world statistical data. Riverdeep's School Tycoon enables kids to build a school to their liking.
The missing technological element is true one-to-one computing, in which each student has a device he or she can work on, keep, customize, and take home. For true technological advance to occur, the computers must be personal to each learner. When used properly and well for education, these computers become extensions of the students' personal self and brain.
But resisting today's digital technology will be truly lethal to our children's education. They live in an incredibly fast-moving world significantly different than the one we grew up in. The number-one technology request of today's students is to have email and instant messaging always available and part of school. They not only need things faster than their teachers are used to providing them, they also have many other new learning needs as well, such as random access to information and multiple data streams.
First, consult the students.
For the digital age, we need new curricula, new organization, new architecture, new teaching, new student assessments, new parental connections, new administration procedures, and many other elements.
Dabbling.
Doing old things in old ways.
Doing old things in new ways.
Doing new things in new ways.
But new technology still faces a great deal of resistance. Today, even in many schools with computers, Luddite administrators (and even Luddite technology administrators) lock down the machines, refusing to allow students to access email. Many also block instant messaging, cell phones, cell phone cameras, unfiltered Internet access, Wikipedia, and other potentially highly effective educational tools and technologies, to our kids' tremendous frustration.
This is excellent homework! This comment on Jason's blog post is fascinating, and it is so appropriate to MYP ATL skills.
"The fact that I can meet with a needs-based group and say to them after a mini-lesson, "Find an app or something that will help you learn, practice, and transfer this skill or process," highlights this. Sometimes that is my homework. We speed share it in the morning, and everyone in the group uses it for independent practice and homework the next night. I'll make sure that this page on my blog gets priority before the end of our break. This is some of what our phenomenal Tech Director is helping us to find: http://elearning.sis.org.cn .
While we increasingly assume that both children and their teachers have at least basic tech proficiency, we can't assume that either group knows how to use technology to further educational goals.
This is an extremely important key concept in regard to thinking about where tech belongs and what kind of skills are important to emphasize within the context of curriculum
Integration is a matter of design, and produces considerable cognitive load on a learner. And in light of APIs, social media, and an array of smart mobile devices, is a kind of digital strategy
When the standard says “digital media,” it might as well say social media as it continues “to add interest,” a side-effect of making something non-social, social. students,” but rather requires learners to make complex decisions about how, when, and why to use technology–something educators must do as well.
Evaluation is near the top of Bloom’s taxonomy for a reason, necessitating that students make critical judgment calls about how information is presented and shared.
Collaboration forces students to plan, adopt, adapt, rethink, and revise, all higher-level practices.
demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting.
The third digital divide is about education. It is about those students who are using technology to connect and communicate with others to tackle meaningful problems and those students for whom technology still means making, saving and accessing documents.
Many school children shed sweat and tears to pursue the privilege of a top university education. But only a lucky few will make the grade and then they will have to fund it. The tech world however is full of visionaries intent on disrupting traditional establishments.