Teach42

Well Steve, hmmmm, I can say that 10 years ago, I was in a computer room with 5 compaq presarios, a phone line for each and some eager beavers just DYING to use the “equipment.” Time is a good thing…but only if you have the resources, I’m learning now, 10 years later. Hopefully, the future will make connections available for all students to have equal opportunities.

Amy

I should wave my magic wand over the 20 computers in my lab and make them into laptops. Then go into each classroom and do the same to the 3 computers they have. Then go to the budget for next year and change all the desktops (except for a few high end ones) and change them to laptops as well. Then instead of ordering 2 Digital Whiteboards for “trial” we order 5 and put them in different parts of the school: Library, tech lab (which now don’t exist because we took the 20 laptops out and made it a wireless drop in lab), project areas, etc. We then use the Wednesday scheduled staff meeting time from 3:00-4:30 to learn about the new technology. Not every Wednesdays, but ones like yesterday when we did NOTHING! (A waste of a good 1 ½ hours if you ask me)

You then give all this technology to students and you say “Here, let’s learn with this!”

If I had a magic wand in my elementary school, that’s where I would start.

I’ve heard wish lists being made for years with a fraction of the wishes granted. I have tried to work out why in a longer reply on my blog: http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2006/01/time_for_knowle.html

Should we have pockets of excellence to test out these new techs or continue to apply a thin coating to everyone?

“I also think asking it of just teachers is far too limiting. IT directors, social workers, principals, superintendents, parents, tutors, students, and anyone else that’s a part of the school community should be considering the question.”

I think this is exactly right. This is a community issue. Business owners and community leaders have a big stake in this, for example, as schools are producing our next employees and citizens. But how can teachers possibly understand all that their student need in preparation for these new roles if folks from “the real world” don’t participate and help them understand what type of worker/citizen is required — what asset s/he needs to be successful.