Technology in Education

I saw Children of Men this weekend.  I was very impressed (my wife wasn’t completely satisfied).  The movie is an immersion in a future society where women have gone infertile for some mysterious reason.  And then there is hope, and some serious drama as the movie unfolds.

Are we seeing more visions of the Apocolypse lately?  This movie is bleak but certainly ends on a hopeful note (I wonder if there were alternate endings).  Are we in an artistic period where movies are designed to scare us a little bit more (ala Inconvenient Truth)?

Does your school have a shared vision?  Do students, community, teachers, staff all agree on where they should be headed?  We read a lot about educating students for jobs that don’t even exist yet, or about schools that are still teaching as if it was 1930.  But how does a “vision” school actually operate?

I wonder if elementary schools have stronger vision than high schools.  Perhaps because of more parental involvement there is often a stronger consensus on goals and standards.  What we find so often at the high school is everyone doing their own thing, without a central core.

 Does your school have a shared vision?  I don’t see how we can switch to Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 without a shared vision on creating a new type of student.  One who is a problem solver and innovator.

Scott McLeod reposted the video about how the world is getting flat fast.  If you haven’t seen it I advise taking the time.  It took me awhile to remember the music.  Excellent pun.

 So are we part of a dying tribe?  Or are we at the cusp of a new civilization?  I watched two things recently that I think relate to this issue.  The first was Terminator 3 where in the near future machines become aware of themselves and begin to take over the world.  The video has interesting fact that soon a desktop computer will have more computing power than the entire human race.  That is both incredible, and a bit scary. 

The second thing I watched was the PBS show (I dont remember the title) on how close we are to making the brain our “phone”.  How we already have deaf people with implants in their brain that allow them to “hear”.  That we are working on “wiring” the spinal column (we just need smaller wires).  Anyone who watches the people in the mall talking to themselves (both for medical reasons and if they have that little phone thing in their ear) know that we are approaching true collective conscience.  Somewhere, right now, some graduate student is thinking about implanting a phone in his head.

And as we all know, this is coming fast. Cyborg alert.

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With Claudia being one year old I have been prompted to pursue the video phone options so Claudia can view her relatives who are living far away.  We use her blog which has worked great.  But the opportunity for face-to-face contact for free is a great use of broadband.

So far we have experimented with skype and yahoo

Skype: Works well and you can call computer to computer anywhere in the world for free.  You can have unlimited calling from your computer to any phone for $14.95 for the year (we called mom and it worked great).  We tried it and it works and sounds pretty good.

Yahoo Messenger: This is also free from computer to computer.  We havent set up for computer to phone because skype is much cheaper.  We think this is easier for computer to computer.  We hooked up a webcam and it works real well.  You do feel like the person is in the room with you.

So I will keep you updated on our progress.  We currently spend a lot of money for telephone service.  If we can make it free AND have it be video that can be a fairly revolutionary change.

For the first time in awhile I am intrigued by a gadget.  The iPhone thing seems like a leap forward.  I use my cellphone maybe three times a month.  Much less than when I was coaching (or when Kasey was pregnant).  Why?  I dont really have anyone to call (and I dont really answer the phone). Its expensive, and cumbersome.

Will the iPhone change some of this?  Or will it be more of a WiFi situation with all these cities erecting WiFi hubs?  I do know that almost every student carries a cellphone, and that we are ignoring a huge resource.  So many of our classes and teachers have little access to computers, but we refuse to say “take out your phone”.  Will an iPhone-portable hard drive-phone-iPod thing change all this?

 I agree with previous posts.  Apple has had some flops before.  If the iPod wasnt so successful nobody would be paying attention to any of this.

I have been fighting a lot of small battles about where school is heading. Are we holding on to a 1900 school, or are we reaching towards a 2100 school? My daughter, being one year old, has drawn much of these thoughts. What will her college look like? Will she HAVE college by then or will it be virtual?

Also, its been very warm, and I think its starting to freak some people out a bit. Some people really rely on the seasons here in New England.

There is a lot of play in the blog world about mobile technology (Tim, Will, etc..).

 A few notes about my experience with PDAs (you can google my name and read a lot more).

• Our experience with Palms was a great success.  The 1-1 aspect increased student attention, attendance, and performance.
• The accessibility and portability of the technology was great.  For example, using the Palms on our trip to Italy (with a translator tool) was a godsend when we stayed with host families. 
• They wear out.  Getting constant use was tough on the machines.  The kids loved them, but they werent built for kids.

Can most of this apply to cellphones?  Absolutely.  Since we already have the phones I am wondering if educators are working on standards for using them in education.  Palms had thousands of programs for education.  Is the same developing in cellphones (perhaps overseas?).  I think if we take a leadership role in curriculum and software many more possibilities might develop. 

While I think most of the PCs in schools are really just used as expensive typewriters I also think phones should be used more than as a way to call Mom.  If we can cross that barrier we might be able to leave the textbooks behind.

I read this post on my bloglines account from Owen Bradley who has a great blog on music technology. I am hoping some of our readers could get involved (I am a former director of a solo and ensemble festival). As I have said before, if we share our knowledge we could become much stronger. You can call for FREE on skype. I bet you a lot of your kids are practicing over the phone/internet right now. Is your classroom ready for this?

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