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The author's top 5 keys to successful education technology... do you agree? Is it missing anything?

One of the more powerful messages I have learned in Stone's class is when you are designing an educational intervention you have to know WHEN to ask the question: what technology, if any, will improve our educational problem? Before you ask this question, the problem should be clearly identified, and the steps to assess if the problem is improving should be laid out. When you have this information, you can then tailor the technology to specifically meet the needs of your current problem. In this way, technology is sort of the means (not the ends!) towards improving education. So, in addition to the author's 5 key factors for educational technology, I would like to add: Is the technology a good fit for addressing our clearly defined educational problem?

The Indiana Department of Education is thoughtfully considering exactly how to incorporate technology into the classroom, resisting buying new technologies based on trends or marketing pressure or the desire to keep up; they are trying to carefully select tools that will help children learn in the classroom and improve performance rather than have technology for technology's sake. I think that this is a very important difference and one that every school that is purchasing new technologies for the classroom should consider very carefully.

There were two recent articles in NYTimes on use of technology with opposing view. While one article proposes replacing textbooks with laptops, the other school "doesn't compute." This article takes a middle path, a balanced used of technology in our schools. The author argues that computer cannot replace books, technology cannot replace a teacher, writing, or discussion. Technology is a tool to enrich the material and agument a curriculum.

- as technology become more available everywhere, how to deal with its use among children in informal setting is a topic under discussion - for now, it seems like individual parents are providing their own guidance to their children (or no guidance) with no common understanding of what is best for the children of certain age - the pessimistic view in this article claims for the risk of ''the Nobody Scenario'' and seem to believe that there would be many negative cognitive consequences for the children if heavy-used (the definition of 'children' and 'technology' here is not clearly defined) Understanding and cooperation from children's parents would be very important in the process of implementing emerging technologies in school settings thus this type of controversy is interesting to watch.

Obama should put more money into educational technology. This seems like a very one sided and simplistic view of how technology can be used to improve education. Only at the end of the article do you realize that the author is selling something: he's an officer at a company that works with educational technology

The distraction of technology, especially mobile phone and computer, has always been a concern to us. When I was in middle school, few students owned cellphones or laptops. So we have no chance to be immersed in the virtual world. But apparently we couldn't enjoy the benefits of the latest technology either at that time. If I were able to choose, I would definitely choose the colorful school life which is enriched by the various technologies.

Martinez Unified School District starting the process of "marrying" technoloyg to education. An argument for technology in education, "technology is only technology to those who were born before it."

More than 1500 The Massachusetts teachers and educators gather for 2011 Technology Conference on Wednesday, Oct. 26 and Thursday, Oct. 27, at Gillette. As the author states, "MassCUE and M.A.S.S. are recognized nationally for their efforts to help pre-K through post-secondary educators best use and enhance learning through technology."

I'll email you! :-)

Isabel Chris Stephen and I are at MassCUE 2011 right now in a q&a with keynote speaker Yong Zhao. And next in a session with Justin Reich.

Communication and ­collaboration between curriculum and technology leaders are necessary to impact teaching and learning. Educators are knowledgeable about ­research on effective ­instructional ­strategies while tech leaders are familiar with educational technology trends and emerging applications and mobile devices. Together, these leaders can ­develop a common language that aligns ­evidence-based instructional practices.

This article discusses one school's plan to implement effective learning technologies into the classroom. They looked at examples that were working in other parts of the world and incorporated them into their idea which includes many augmented reality applications. They discuss the divide between using technology effectively in our personal lives and not in education, so the classroom remains the same as it has been for 100 years. As we have discussed in class, the education system must use technology in the classroom to help prepare students for jobs that require skills adaptable to technologies that do not yet exist.

This articles featuring various stances on technology in the classroom. Arguments are made for technology-heavy curriculum, classrooms free of technology and responsible and effective technology use with thorough professional development and teacher facilitation. Another voice adding their two cents to the technology in the classroom conversation. I think that the most well informed angle expressed in the article is the opinion that we need better teachers and careful use of technology when it's inclusion will improve the learning potential more than if it weren't used.

Hi T561- a bit old, but an international perspective on the inequality of technology access across the globe. This article links in with the TIE list discussions about the One Laptop Per Child effort as well. If we want to use technology to break down international barriers, like Dede's "Microsoft of the future" film, we have to address the issue of accessibility, both across the globe and within our own student population.

The further along I go, the more I am realizing that we have fully arrived in the information age. For our nation to compete globally - we must get out of the trap of growing media consumers, technology consumers, and information consumers. We must grow a generation of students who not only use technology, but understand technology so that they can become active technology producers, so that they can create, innovate, imagine, and disrupt. Possibly, understanding computer science will be as important as learning to read and write - the new literacy.

Fedora to provide scholarship. Incentive to contribute to open source technologies for high school students. Perhaps getting high school students engaged in open source projects is a means of putting the medium of technology into the learners hands.

This is an editorial discussing how emerging technologies can help eliminate the need for annual standardized testing of students by tracking their progress constantly throughout the year through technology use. IPads, Khan Academy, data analysis, KIPP schools, the achievement gap, online courses and their innovations through emerging technologies are discussed.

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."

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!

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.

A hands-on report with the $35 tablet (Aakash). Interested that they call it a "leap frog" technology, in that it's a modern technology brought into a society that didn't have related legacy technologies to begin with. Relates to our class discussion of 'disruptive technologies'- if a group is starting with nothing at all, the bar can initially be set very low and it's still better than nothing. From there, the only direction to go is up (improvement). The article was also updated with a detailed use report w/ video: http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/28/aakash-35-android-tablet/

Thoughtful post about technology integration for tablets

Yes, very interesting indeed. We've discussed a lot about the lack of professional development for implementation of iPads in the classroom, but not too much about the SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification, redefinition), developed by Ruben R. Puentendura. He is spot on in saying "For technology to be truly innovative and impactful on students, we must get to the stage of Redefinition, in which we use technology to create and perform tasks that - prior to the existence of the technology - were inconceivable" I think this is going to be tough to overcome with the iPad. Schools are so caught up in their fad. It seems as though it's hard for anyone, even smart creative people, to use their ipads in truly creative, richer, deeper, redefining ways.

Thank you for sharing this post Prof Chris. I agree that we cannot 'throw the iPad in, mix and stir' to develop a new program. However, where I disagree with the approach is that it does not start with the learner. The author began with pedagogy and then technology, but I feel that there should be learning theory first and then pedagogy and technology to support both.

This article is about students running help desks. This is becoming more common, as students are often better versed in technology than many teachers. The article identifies a relevant curriculum and discusses the dynamic shift from students supporting technology to technology supporting students. This also goes along with the Burlington High School help desk link I shared.

A nice reminder that throwing tech into a classroom solves nothing without proper teacher training. "That is why our investment in upgrading classrooms needs to focus equally on making sure teachers know how to use digital tools effectively." "the motherboard and the memory chip will never replace the passion and inspiration of a real-life teacher."

So I think this articles goes along the same lines as the one from Daniel, about "Are Kids Really Motivated by Technology?". Both bring up great points that just technology alone can't solve education--so it's interesting to think about what that means for a lot of the technology-driven initiatives we see now. Khan, digital textbooks, etc., bring in technology to the classroom, but how much do they still depend on teacher proficiency in the classroom? Are they just repackaging traditional education? What about things like Coursera or edX--does interacting with an inspirational and passionate teacher through the Web still positively affect students?