Group items tagged

It’s “impossible to overstate the power of individual teachers in the success or failure of 1-to-1 computing,” Bebell and Kay write. “Teachers nearly always control how and when students access and use [the] technology during the school day. In addition, teachers must make massive investments in time and effort to adapt their teaching materials and practices to make the 1-to-1 environment effective and relevant.”

by Michael Zimmer from the blog: The Pursuit of Technology Integration Happiness 1. Technology integration is THE ANSWER to improving test scores. 2. New teachers have a better understanding of how to integrate technology integration in schools. 3. Current teachers have no desire to learn how to integrate technology in their classrooms. 4. Integrating technology is too expensive for my school to afford. 5. I don’t have time to learn how to integrate technology in the classroom. 6. There can’t possibly be any technology to integrate in the subject matter that I teach. 7. I have to know EVERYTHING about the technology before I can integrate it. 8. My students have a better understanding of the technology, and that is embarrassing.

Anderson said cell phones are getting a second look at the senior high. As the phones have become more pervasive and more powerful, teachers and administrators have begun to look at ways they can be used as tools to enhance education rather than disrupt it. Students with Internet-capable phones have access to the district's Infinite Campus student management system, to check assignments, contact teachers and manage their school life online, he said. Mobile communications are an ever-growing part of what students have to cope with and manage, he said. "It's appropriate to bring that into our curriculum." While more and more students carry more and more powerful mobile phones, those who remain unconnected have one fewer option than they did several years ago. There's no point in a student keeping a few coins in his pocket in case he needs to use a pay phone - coin-operated phones have left the buildings. "I don't think they'd know how to use one," Anderson said.

What's so wrong with schooling? And what are these old structures that lead to the unemployable? I think Don Ledingham's summary of Alan McCluskey from the Swiss Agency for ICT in education sums it up: The 7 Tacit Lessons Which Schools Teach Children: Knowledge is scarce.Learning needs a specific place and specific time (lessons in classrooms).Knowledge is best learnt in disconnected little pieces (lessons).To learn you need the help of an approved expert i.e. a teacher.To learn you need to follow a path determined by a learning expert (a course of study).You need an expert to assess your progress (a teacher).You can attribute a meaningful numerical value to the value of learning (marks, grades, degrees)