HGSET561

@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

This artcile points out a strong frustration of mine. I've long believed that teachers and educators need a space to share how products work in the "real world" beyond the studies self-reported by companies. I have been familiar with the whatworks clearinghous and I have to say that the site is cumbersome without any commenting. If the site had a stronger design, compiled information better, and then allowed for users of the vetted programs to comment then they would have a useful tool.

Allison, do you know of any non-goverment or non-profit "Consumer Reports" style ed tech review forums which provide a balanced, ind-depth review (and where users can share their experiences)? After looking at the DOE what works clearing house website, I agree it is not well-layed out.

Thanks for sharing this link to scoop.it I love it's simple layout. I'm going to have to try this out!