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Uche Amaechi

BYOD - Worst Idea of the 21st Century? : Stager-to-Go - 7 views

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    Uche, you keep posting stuff I have a problem with- OK I understand that BYOD policies may not be so great but I really believe that familes should shoulder some of the costs for hardware since degredation is such a problem. The schools can have agreements with vendors to provide certain laptops or tablets for a certain price point and they can design their systems to support these items. Parents are expected to purchase backpacks, binders, and school supplies. When parents can't provide these back-to-school supplies, schools cover it. The same should be for computers. Speaking as a middle class parent (refer to above article) I believe this is an important investment in our schools so that they can focus on hardware support and software implementation/ integration.
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    @Allison and Uche - I am torn. While I initially thought BYOD was a good idea so that schools would have to stop "blaming" their fiscal woes on their inability to integrate emerging technologies into the curriculum, I now have some appreciation with points from this article - especially around "false equivalences" and "enshrining inequities" in light of my own children's "bring your own electronic device" day that took place two weeks ago. As a school wide reward for meeting their Accelerated Reading goal, all students were told they could bring an electronic device to school to "play" with on Friday afternoon. This prompted my kids to call me (Skype) on Thursday night and ask me if I could buy them a DS or a SmartPhone that NIGHT so that they could bring either of those devices to school for the celebration. Now mind you, my kids have access to lap tops, iPad, Smart Phones, Wii games, GameBoy, iPods, Flip camera, digital camera, etc - albeit not their OWN - but still access to them for use (when Mom and Dad are not using them). But apparently, of the devices left that Mom and Dad weren't using, none of them were "cool" enough for this event. That got me wondering if BYOD might have the same effect on our learners making those who don't have the latest and greatest feel bad or less adequate then their friends or classmates who could bring something they deemed as "better?" Allison, your point seems to be that requiring parents to cover the expense of a digital device as a requirement for school is not a bad idea, but I think you are referring to expecting the SAME device to be purchased and used, not myriad devices with various capabilities, features and functions - am I understanding you correctly? And if we did try to mandate parental supply of digital devices, would we have a different kind of fight on our hands because, as consumers, parents might have their own biases around what they deem is the best device of all (not just PC vs MAC or iOS vs Android, but sma
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    I still believe that a system properly designed could mitigate some of your concerns. In reality, schools can not support any device that a student brings in. They are capable of supporting a certain number and if they build relationships with the vendors to sell those devices that the school is capable of supporting then families will be aware that the school will offer the best deal on the items that are compatible. Every year the school recommends items for back to school supplies. If the laptop could replace all of the binders it might be worth it. There are many factors to consider but the biggest obstacle is that schools maintain such old equipment because of their budget woes. Even when we can purchase the latest and greatest software, the computers can't run it.
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    What a great debate you guys are having! One point worth considering is that typically the parents are responsible for purchasing the supplies, while the school is responsible for providing the content (textbooks, workbooks, handouts, worksheets, videos, etc). In the near future these devices may also be the primary sources of content, replacing textbooks altogether. I would hope perhaps funding for textbooks could be transferred to funding for these devices. I would also hope that the price of these devices drops significantly (is the $35 tablet in our future?). Then of course the question of who pays is less important. In my job producing educational video for publishing companies, I spend way too much time dealing with various formats and compatibility problems with browsers, so I'd love to see a future where this becomes more standardized.
Niko Cunningham

Google is now entering the US Education Thought-Space - 4 views

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    Google has US Education in its crosshairs.... Google is name-dropping all sorts of work in the education space in its forum to help redefine American education : Harlem Children's Zone, NCLB, A Nation at Risk, Sesame Street................. Here's a snippet: "And according to McKinsey's Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools report, if the U.S. had in recent years closed the gap between its educational achievement levels and those of higher-performing nations, our GDP in 2008 could have been $1.3 trillion to $2.3 trillion higher. That's 9 to 16 percent of GDP!"
Maung Nyeu

At Waldorf School in Silicon Valley, Technology Can Wait - NYTimes.com - 1 views

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    A contrarian view. "Some education experts say that the push to equip classrooms with computers is unwarranted because studies do not clearly show that this leads to better test scores or other measurable gains."
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    Maung - I just tweeted this! The irony? I read it on my Android smartphone at the Apple store waiting to buy my iPad2!! Would love to talk more about this in class because I DID learn the "old fashioned" way and here I am as an adult, proficient at technology and attending Harvard...am I any less off for not being a digital native? Am I behind the rest of my HGSE because of it? Or has my learning technology as a late teen and adult benefitted me in some way that cannot be proven unless we conduct research with a control group devoid of technology all together during those early formative years? Would love to continue this discussion!
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    First of all - the girl in the picture of this article is reading Nancy Drew - who else spent most of their childhood with their head buried in a mystery series? :-) Secondly, I cannot tell you how valuable mud was to my childhood. Had I not been at a camp every summer where I was able to play around in mud and run through the woods all day, I would not be the person I am today. I think I did most of my growing and much of my learning in informal environments such as camp. It sounds to me like this school is trying to replicate those learning experiences...in a classroom. Not saying it's the way to go...but certainly an interesting model. Thanks for sharing!
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    Waldorf philosophy is different approach. For example, children learn to write first before they learn to read. As a result children may learn to read as late as 8 or 9. It's based on the anthroposophy philosophy. Children's who parents value these things will do well in a school without technology. Children who are plugged in at home would have a difficult time. This is effective for private school but not public school.
anonymous

Kinect TV And Sesame Street Hack The Next Generation Of TV - 0 views

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    Xbox Kinect TV plans to bring interactive, immersive experiences to live action television and children's books with the help of National Geographic and Sesame Street's Workshop. Xbox is unveiling a sharp idea for the next generation of television: interactive, live-action content, produced in partnership Sesame Workshop and National Geographic. I was actually working at Sesame when this idea was first introduced. Many were skeptical but I'm glad to see they are going to try and utilize this technological movement forward.
Anna Ho

Zero to Eight: Children's Media Use in America | Common Sense Media - 1 views

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    Thanks for this, Anna. I saw this group as part of an interview on ABC about iPads. Their data really gets me thinking about the educational and home space and how we need to design content to leverage the technology that is most accessible to them - and the iPad isn't the "golden ticket" (at least in this age span).
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    CommonSense is a strong organization - they have a comprehensive database of reviews of content, so if you are a parent looking for the low down on a media product (whether it be a TV show, video game, movie, etc.), commonsense is a good place to get an overview of the product. I have heard arguments, however, that their tendency is to be more conservative in their reviews. May not work for every parent, but definitely a good resource! For other groups like this one, check out the following: Temple's Media Education Lab, http://mediaeducationlab.com/ ; Children Now, http://www.childrennow.org/index.php/learn/talking_with_kids//television.html ; The LAMP http://www.thelampnyc.org/ ; and Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/
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