SchoolTechnology

Our schools are now a desert swept with the winds of yesterday's technology; meanwhile our students can be found drinking from an oasis of smartphones, smart apps and smart interfaces. They have answers to questions we haven't even dared to ask. They outsmart us at every turn.Teenagers upgrade their mobile phone every 12 months. Even the socially disadvantaged are one step ahead of their school's ICT. That's not a problem. That's a huge opportunity schools should grasp. It's an

pportunity to save money and upgrade our thinking about ICT.

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.”

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.