Leigh Zeitz on 2009-10-15
Dabbling IS the exact word to use when talking about learning new things. You need to play before you can envision the possible opportunities.
This link has been bookmarked by 94 people . It was first bookmarked on 05 Jul 2007, by Sara Beauchamp.
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21 Oct 09
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15 Oct 09
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Dabbling.
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13 Oct 09
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But new technology still faces a great deal of resistance.
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The missing technological element is true one-to-one computing, in which each
student has a device he or she can work on, keep, customize, and take home.
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12 Oct 09
Nancy BlairArticle by Presnky that discusses stages of adoption of technology.
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10 Oct 09
Matt Clausenfrom old things in old ways to new things in new ways
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07 Oct 09
Linda Wilsonuse this for a session with Redland:
reaction to this
who reads blogs?
who has ever commented
make everyone commenttechnology technology_integration prensky learning edutopia article Redland
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typical process of technology adoption
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- Dabbling.
- Doing old things in old ways.
- Doing old things in new ways.
- Doing new things in new ways.
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first instinct is always to continue doing things within the technology the way we've always done it
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some elements may have been lost, but the results were certainly cheaper, and far more efficient
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I would even include writing, creating, submitting, and sharing work digitally on the computer via email or instant messaging in the category of doing old things (communicating and exchanging) in old ways (passing stuff around).
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much of the digitized educational materials and records are just examples of using computers to collect old stuff (such as data or lesson plans) in old ways (by filing)
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When we begin adding digital demonstrations through video and Flash animation, we are giving students new, better ways to get information
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manipulate whole virtual systems, from cities to countries to refineries, rather than just handling manipulatives.
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But there are many more old things children are doing in new ways
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that have not yet made their way into our schools
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it is crucial for educators to learn to listen, to observe, to ask, and to try all the new methods their students have already figured out, and do so regularly
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Any ratio that involves sharing computers -- even two kids to a computer -- will delay the technology revolution from happening
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school system has evolved an extremely delicate balance between many sets of pressures -- political, parental, social, organizational, supervisory, and financial -- that any technological change is bound to disrupt.
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They live in an incredibly fast-moving world significantly different than the one we grew up in
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they also have many other new learning needs as well, such as random access to information and multiple data streams.
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With very few exceptions, our schools have not been physically designed for computers. Much time in our schools' 45-minute instructional periods is often wasted in computer setup and shutdown. Teachers are often unsure about how to integrate technology in their lesson plans and, often, administrators have little, if any, guidance to give them. In many places where technology could liberate teachers most, such as automatic grading of homework and tests, automation has been neglected. Adding digital technology is generally disruptive to what schools and teachers do, and the pressure of high-stakes testing only exacerbates this problem.
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I suggest that every lesson plan, every class, every school, every school district, and every state ought to try something new and then report to all of us what works and what doesn't; after all, we do have the Internet.
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06 Oct 09
Robyn Weissburggreat article.
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30 Sep 09
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When a new technology appears, our first instinct is always to continue doing things within the technology the way we've always done it.
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It appears that students who write on a computer turn in longer and higher-quality assignments than those who compose by hand, even though it's still writing.
- 2 more annotations...
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But new technology still faces a great deal of resistance.
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(clothes, supplies, and even homework) on eBay and the Internet; exchanging music on P2P sites; building games with modding (modifying) tools; setting up meetings and dates online; posting personal information and creations for others to check out; meeting people through cell phones; building libraries of music and movies; working together in self-formed teams in multiplayer online role-playing games; creating and using online reputation systems; peer rating of comments; online gaming; screen saver analysis; photoblogging; programming; exploring; and even transgressing and testing social norms.
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14 Sep 09
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02 Sep 09
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28 Aug 09
Peggy GeorgeThe biggest question about technology and schools in the 21st century is not so much "What can it do?" but, rather, "When will it get to do it?" We all know life will be much different by 2100. Will school? How close will we be to Edutopia? First, it helps to look at the typical process of technology adoption (keeping in mind, of course, that schools are not typical of anything.) It's typically a four-step process:
1. Dabbling.
2. Doing old things in old ways.
3. Doing old things in new ways.
4. Doing new things in new ways.technology education teaching prensky learning edutopia edtech integration
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21 Aug 09
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18 Aug 09
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12 Aug 09
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08 Aug 09
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28 Jul 09
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We use it mostly to pass documents around, but now in electronic form, and the result is not very different from what we have always known.
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There are some educational benefits, though, including allowing teachers to access data more easily and parents to do so more extensively.
- 3 more annotations...
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simulations i
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doing old things in new ways.
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that have not yet made their way into our schools. These include buying school materials (clothes, supplies, and even homework) on eBay and the Internet; exchanging music on P2P sites; building games with modding (modifying) tools; setting up meetings and dates online; posting personal information and creations for others to check out; meeting people through cell phones; building libraries of music and movies; working together in self-formed teams in multiplayer online role-playing games; creating and using online reputation systems; peer rating of comments; online gaming; screen saver analysis; photoblogging; programming; exploring; and even transgressing and testing social norms.
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30 Jun 09
Donna WeaverThe typical process of technology adoption (keeping in mind, of course, that schools are not typical of anything.) is a four-step process:
Dabbling.
Doing old things in old ways.
Doing old things in new ways.
Doing new things in new ways. \ntechnology education prensky teaching learning edutopia edtech integration
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28 Jun 09
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27 Jun 09
maria rodriguesEdutopia
The George Lucas Education Foundation
Artigo de Prensky - Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom
21st-century schools need 21st-century technology. -
06 Jun 09
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21 May 09
Cyndi Danner-KuhnThe missing technological element is true one-to-one computing, in which each student has a device he or she can work on, keep, customize, and take home. For true technological advance to occur, the computers must be personal to each learner.
technology education teaching edtech web2.0 integration 21stcenturyskills learning articles
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18 May 09
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16 May 09
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29 Apr 09
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23 Apr 09
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13 Apr 09
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09 Apr 09
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08 Apr 09
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07 Apr 09
Wendy WindustThe biggest question about technology and schools in the 21st century is not so much "What can it do?" but, rather, "When will it get to do it?" We all know life will be much different by 2100. Will school? How close will we be to Edutopia?
technology education teaching prensky learning edutopia edtech integration
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06 Apr 09
Tony SearlThousands of articles, videos, slide shows, expert interviews, blog entries, and other resources highlight success stories in K-12 education. Core concepts include integrated studies, project learning,technology integration, teacher development, social an
technology education teaching learning edutopia web2.0 article prensky edtech
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05 Apr 09
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30 Mar 09
Jeff JohnsonThe biggest question about technology and schools in the 21st century is not so much "What can it do?" but, rather, "When will it get to do it?" We all know life will be much different by 2100. Will school? How close will we be to Edutopia?
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27 Mar 09
Julie LindsayThe biggest question about technology and schools in the 21st century is not so much "What can it do?" but, rather, "When will it get to do it?" We all know life will be much different by 2100. Will school? How close will we be to Edutopia?
Article by Marc Prensky in Edutopia21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyclassroom 1:1 mobilecomputing online qaonlinelearning qamobilecomputing education
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11 Mar 09
DeShaunda Gooden WarnerAdopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom, an article written by Marc Prensky
21st-century schools need 21st-century technology.prensky education teaching learning technology integration 21st century learning environments Articles
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27 Feb 09
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will be new only when those courses, curricula, and lesson plans are very different and technology influenced, when they are set up so they can be found and mixed and matched easily, when they are continually iterated and updated, and when the kids have a big say in their creation
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trend
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many schools
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lock down the machines, refusing to allow students to access email. Many also block instant messaging, cell phones, cell phone cameras, unfiltered Internet access, Wikipedia, and other potentially highly effective educational tools and technologies
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to our
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tremendous frustration.
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students
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Revolution and Supercharged,
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manipulate whole virtual systems
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persona of a peasant farmer in Bangladesh, a Brazilian factory worker, a police officer in Nigeria, a Polish computer operator, or a lawyer in the United States, among others, experiencing those lives based on real-world statistical data
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Riverdeep's School Tycoon enables kids to build a school to their liking.
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students act like scientists and innovators
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An important question is, How many of these new ways will ever be integrated into our instruction
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A second key barrier to technological adoption is more challenging. Schools (which really means the teachers and administrators) famously resist change.
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resisting today's digital technology will be truly lethal to our children's education
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our kids "should sue us" for better education
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ought to try something new and then report to all of us what works and what doesn't
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25 Feb 09
Jennifer BarnettPrensky article that really shapes thinking on if we are really using technology as we should
article edtech education edutopia integration learning prensky teaching technology web2.0
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08 Feb 09
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Rob Reynoldsdigital natives - article Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edutopia.org%2Fadopt-and-adapt
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I would even include writing, creating, submitting, and sharing work digitally on the computer via email or instant messaging in the category of doing old things (communicating and exchanging) in old ways (passing stuff around)
- 1 more annotations...
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face antitechnology pressure from parents demanding that schools go back to basics.
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27 Jan 09
Anne JollyGREAT article - insights into use (and nonuse) of digital tools in the classroom.
technology education teaching learning digital digital tools
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26 Jan 09
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- Dabbling.
- Doing old things in old ways.
- Doing old things in new ways.
- Doing new things in new ways.
It's typically a four-step process:
- Dabbling.
-
In a growing number of simulations, ranging from the off-the-shelf SimCity and
<> to Muzzy Lane's Making History to MIT's experimental Revolution and Supercharged, students -- even
elementary school children -- can now manipulate whole virtual systems, from
cities to countries to refineries, rather than just handling manipulatives.In Education Simulations' Real Lives, children take on the persona of
a peasant farmer in Bangladesh, a Brazilian factory worker, a police officer in
Nigeria, a Polish computer operator, or a lawyer in the United States, among
others, experiencing those lives based on real-world statistical data.
Riverdeep's School Tycoon enables kids to build a school
to their liking. With these tools, students act like scientists and innovators,
rather than serve as empty vessels. They arrive at their own conclusions through
controlled experimentation and what scientists call "enlightened trial and
error."
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10 Jan 09
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04 Jan 09
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The only way to move forward effectively is to combine what they know about technology with what we know and require about education.
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What we're talking about is invention -- new things in new ways.
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29 Dec 08
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Any ratio that involves sharing computers -- even two kids to a computer -- will delay the technology revolution from happening.
-
I suggest that every lesson plan, every class, every school, every school district, and every state ought to try something new and then report to all of us what works and what doesn't; after all, we do have the Internet.
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14 Dec 08
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02 Dec 08
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26 Nov 08
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21 Nov 08
Terry Kaminski21st century tech for 21st century schools
Nice article on why we need to change. -
11 Nov 08
Joe LaFitteHow, then, do we move forward?
First, consult the students. They are far ahead of their educators in terms of taking advantage of digital technology and using it to their advantage. We cannot, no matter how hard we try or how smart we are (or think we are), invent the future education of our children for them. The only way to move forward effectively is to combine what they know about technology with what we know and require about education. Sadly, in most cases, no one asks for their opinion. I go to conference after conference on school technology, and nary a student is in sight. I do hope that, after having pointed this situation out a hundred times or so, I will find that it is starting to change. Students will have to help,and we will have to think harder about how to make this happen.
New Things in New Ways
For the digital age, we need new curricula, new organization, new architecture, new teaching, new student assessments, new parental connections, new administration procedures, and many other elements. Some people suggest using emerging models from business -- but these, for the most part, don't apply. Others suggest trying to change school size -- but this will not help much if we are still doing the wrong things, only in smaller spaces.
What we're talking about is invention -- new things in new ways. Change is the order of the day in our kids' twenty-first-century lives. It ought to be the order of the day in their schools as well. Not only would students welcome it, they will soon demand it. Angus King, the former governor of Maine who pushed for one-to-one computing in that state's schools, recently suggested our kids "should sue us" for better education. I suggest that every lesson plan, every class, every school, every school district, and every state ought to try something new and then report to all of us what works and what doesn't; after all, we do have the Internet.
Some people will no doubt worry that, with all this experimentation, our children's education will be hurt. "When will we haveprensky teaching edtech integration technology education edutopia learning barriers
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The Big Tech Barrier: One-to-One
The missing technological element is true one-to-one computing, in which each student has a device he or she can work on, keep, customize, and take home. For true technological advance to occur, the computers must be personal to each learner. When used properly and well for education, these computers become extensions of the students' personal self and brain. They must have each student's stuff and each student's style all over them (in case you haven't noticed, kids love to customize and make technology personal), and that is something sharing just doesn't allow. Any ratio that involves sharing computers -- even two kids to a computer -- will delay the technology revolution from happening.
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A second key barrier to technological adoption is more challenging. Schools (which really means the teachers and administrators) famously resist change. Though some observers, including multiple-intelligences guru Howard Gardner, point to schools as the "conservators" of our culture, and therefore instinctively conservative in what they do, the resistance comes more from the fact that our public school system has evolved an extremely delicate balance between many sets of pressures -- political, parental, social, organizational, supervisory, and financial -- that any technological change is bound to disrupt. For example, such shifting certainly initially means more work and pressure on educators, who already feel overburdened.
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05 Nov 08
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Paul McMahonThis is an old (2005) article from Prensky but it is very comprehensive inspelling out in his terms the problems with schools of today and the sorts of changes that need to be seen.
education technology prensky edutopia learning shifting change
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21 Oct 08
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15 Oct 08
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13 Oct 08
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The missing technological element is true one-to-one computing,
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For true technological advance to occur, the computers must be personal to each
learner
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-
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Much time in our schools' forty-five-minute instructional periods is often
wasted in computer setup and shutdown. Teachers -
The only way to move forward effectively is to combine what they know about
technology with what we know and require about education - 2 more annotations...
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For the digital age, we need new curricula, new organization, new architecture,
new teaching, new student assessments, new parental connections, new
administration procedures, and many other elements -
bet they would complete the "standard" curriculum in half the time it now
takes, with high test scores all around. To
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mostly been dabbling with technology in our schools:
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first instinct is always to continue doing things within the technology the way
we've always done it. - 4 more annotations...
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new technology still faces a great deal of resistance
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entered the stage of doing other old things in new ways.
-
begin adding digital demonstrations through video and Flash animation, we are
giving students new, better ways to get information -
even elementary school children -- can now manipulate whole virtual systems,
from cities to countries to refineries, rather than just handling manipulatives
-
-
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T BatesThings to think about when looking to introduce technology into the classroom.
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new
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New Ways
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old things in new
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old things in new
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old things in new ways
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Old Things in New Ways
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New Things in New Ways
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ock down the machines, refusing to allow students to access email.
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cell-phone cameras
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block instant messaging
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potentially highly effective educational tools
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growing number of simulations
-
experimental Revolution and Supercharged
-
best teachers have always used interactive models for demonstrations
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children are doing in new ways
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buying
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exchanging music on P2P
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on eBay
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building games with modding (modifying) tools
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dates online
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peer rating of comments
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understood by educators
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integrated into our instruction
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how many
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important question
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The Big Tech Barrier: One-to-One
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device
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each student
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one-to-one computing
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work on, keep, customize, and take home
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missing technological element
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must have each student's
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balance between
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political, parental, social, organizational, supervisory, and financial
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shifting certainly initially means more work and pressure on educators
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pressure for change
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schools still ban new digital technologies
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cell phones and Wikipedia
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face anti-technology pressure from parents
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"back to basics
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New Problems, New Solutions
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Much time
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unsure about how to integrate technology in their lesson plans
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periods is often wasted in computer setup and shutdown
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How, then, do we move forward?
-
consult the students.
-
The only way to move forward effectively is to combine what they know about
technology with what we know and require about education. Sadly, in most cases,
no one asks for their opinion.
-
-
-
-
- Dabbling.
- Doing old things in old ways.
- Doing old things in new ways.
- Doing new things in new ways.
It's typically a four-step process:
- Dabbling.
-
-
23 Sep 08
Ashley PerkinsDiscusses the barriers between the old ways of thinking/teaching and the new ways.
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12 Sep 08
ted ingrahamAdopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom
Twenty-first-century schools need twenty-first-century technology.web2.0 technology teaching integration technology_integration
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27 Aug 08
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04 Aug 08
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19 Jun 08
Christy TuckerMarc Prensky on uses of technology in the classroom, moving from simply dabbling to doing "new things in new ways."
education technology teaching k-12 changemanagement netgeneration
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- Dabbling.
- Doing old things in old ways.
- Doing old things in new ways.
- Doing new things in new ways.
First, it helps to look at the typical process of technology adoption (keeping in mind, of course, that schools are not typical of anything.) It's typically a four-step process:
-
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08 Jun 08
-
We use it mostly to pass documents around, but now in electronic form, and the result is not very different from what we have always known
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when the kids have a big say in their creation
- 8 more annotations...
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Luddite technology administrators)
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it is crucial for educators to learn to listen, to observe, to ask, and to try all the new methods their students have already figured out, and do so regularly.
-
Any ratio that involves sharing computers -- even two kids to a computer -- will delay the technology revolution from happening
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These "digital natives" are born into digital technology. Conversely, their teachers (and all older adults) are "digital immigrants."
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Rafael Ribas on 2008-06-08
I have said this so many times...
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Much time in our schools' forty-five-minute instructional periods is often wasted in computer setup and shutdown.
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First, consult the students
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The only way to move forward effectively is to combine what they know about technology with what we know and require about education.
-
teachers are most reluctant to give up their assumed role as the one who is in control of the learning process
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06 Jun 08
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04 Jun 08
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When a new technology appears, our first instinct is always to continue doing things within the technology the way we've always done it.
-
That is almost exclusively what we now do with educational technology. We use it mostly to pass documents around, but now in electronic form, and the result is not very different from what we have always known.
- 18 more annotations...
-
-
only when those courses, curricula, and lesson plans are very different and technology influenced, when they are set up so they can be found and mixed and matched easily, when they are continually iterated and updated, and when the kids have a big say in their creation.
-
I would even include writing, creating, submitting, and sharing work digitally on the computer via email or instant messaging in the category of doing old things (communicating and exchanging) in old ways (passing stuff around).
-
But new technology still faces a great deal of resistance. Today, even in many schools with computers, Luddite administrators (and even Luddite technology administrators) lock down the machines, refusing to allow students to access email. Many also block instant messaging, cell phones, cell-phone cameras, unfiltered Internet access, Wikipedia, and other potentially highly effective educational tools and technologies, to our kids' tremendous frustration. Even where technology has not been blocked, much of the digitized educational materials and records are just examples of using computers to collect old stuff (such as data or lesson plans) in old ways (by filing). There are some educational benefits, though, including allowing teachers to access data more easily and parents to do so more extensively.
-
In a growing number of simulations, ranging from the off-the-shelf SimCity and
to Muzzy Lane's Making History to MIT's experimental Revolution and Supercharged, students -- even elementary school children -- can now manipulate whole virtual systems, from cities to countries to refineries, rather than just handling manipulatives. -
In Education Simulations' Real Lives, children take on the persona of a peasant farmer in Bangladesh, a Brazilian factory worker, a police officer in Nigeria, a Polish computer operator, or a lawyer in the United States, among others, experiencing those lives based on real-world statistical data. Riverdeep's School Tycoon enables kids to build a school to their liking. With these tools, students act like scientists and innovators, rather than serve as empty vessels. They arrive at their own conclusions through controlled experimentation and what scientists call "enlightened trial and error."
-
Still, our best teachers have always used interactive models for demonstrations, and students, like scientists and military planners, have been conducting simulations in sand, on paper, and in their heads for thousands of years. So, though some observers trumpet these uses of technology as great innovations, they are really still examples of doing old things in new ways.
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Two big factors stand in the way of our making more and faster progress in technology adoption in our schools. One of these is technological, the other social.
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The missing technological element is true one-to-one computing, in which each student has a device he or she can work on, keep, customize, and take home.
-
the resistance comes more from the fact that our public school system has evolved an extremely delicate balance between many sets of pressures -- political, parental, social, organizational, supervisory, and financial -- that any technological change is bound to disrupt.
-
In the past, the pressure against disruption has always been stronger than the pressure for change.
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The number-one technology request of today's students is to have email and instant messaging always available and part of school.
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Barbara Lindsey on 2008-06-04
I'm not sure students want email--they don't use it, they IM to SMS...
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Many teachers, under pressure from all sides, are often so afraid to experiment and to trust their kids with technology that they demand extensive "training" before they will try anything new.
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With very few exceptions, our schools have not been physically designed for computers. Much time in our schools' forty-five-minute instructional periods is often wasted in computer setup and shutdown. Teachers are often unsure about how to integrate technology in their lesson plans and, often, administrators have little, if any, guidance to give them.
-
How, then, do we move forward?
First, consult the students.
-
The only way to move forward effectively is to combine what they know about technology with what we know and require about education. Sadly, in most cases, no one asks for their opinion. I go to conference after conference on school technology, and nary a student is in sight. I do hope that, after having pointed this situation out a hundred times or so, I will find that it is starting to change. Students will have to help,and we will have to think harder about how to make this happen.
-
For the digital age, we need new curricula, new organization, new architecture, new teaching, new student assessments, new parental connections, new administration procedures, and many other elements. Some people suggest using emerging models from business -- but these, for the most part, don't apply. Others suggest trying to change school size -- but this will not help much if we are still doing the wrong things, only in smaller spaces.
-
I suggest that every lesson plan, every class, every school, every school district, and every state ought to try something new and then report to all of us what works and what doesn't; after all, we do have the Internet.
-
Another reason why we haven't noticed a big difference in education, despite the introduction of new technologies, is that teachers have only vague theories about learning. If so, teachers may well think that computers will help innovate or differentiate their teaching, but their vision will be one of doing "old things in new ways" as said in the article. I am convinced,because I have experienced it many times, that teachers will reproduce the same classroom experiences as before technology entered thei school as long as they are not involved - as reflective practitioner - into a collaborative and personal investigation on how learning works, with or without computers, and what it means to the learner and teacher.
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23 May 08
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20 May 08
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07 May 08
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- Dabbling.
- Doing old things in old ways.
- Doing old things in new ways.
- Doing new things in new way
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But there are many more old things children are doing in new ways -- innovations they have invented or adopted as their preferred method of behavior -- that have not yet made their way into our schools. These include buying school materials (clothes, supplies, and even homework) on eBay and the Internet; exchanging music on P2P sites; building games with modding (modifying) tools; setting up meetings and dates online; posting personal information and creations for others to check out; meeting people through cell phones; building libraries of music and movies; working together in self-formed teams in multiplayer online role-playing games; creating and using online reputation systems; peer rating of comments; online gaming; screen saver analysis; photoblogging; programming; exploring; and even transgressing and testing social norms.
- 1 more annotations...
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So, let's not just adopt technology into our schools. Let's adapt it, push it, pull it, iterate with it, experiment with it, test it, and redo it, until we reach the point where we and our kids truly feel we've done our very best. Then, let's push it and pull it some more. And let's do it quickly, so the twenty-second century doesn't catch us by surprise with too much of our work undone.
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01 May 08
Graham WegnerThe 4 stages of Technology implementation according to Marc Prensky.
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29 Apr 08
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22 Apr 08
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30 Mar 08
Tami BrassIt's typically a four-step process:
1. Dabbling.
2. Doing old things in old ways.
3. Doing old things in new ways.
4. Doing new things in new ways. -
05 Mar 08
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15 Feb 08
Rudy GarnsThe biggest question about technology and schools in the twenty-first century is not so much "What can it do?" but, rather, "When will it get to do it?"
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08 Feb 08
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31 Jan 08
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23 Jan 08
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13 Jan 08
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30 Nov 07
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29 Nov 07
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23 Nov 07
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29 Jun 07
craig rolandMarc Prensky describes a four-step technology adoption process.
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01 Dec 06
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First, it helps to look at the typical process of technology adoption
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It's typically a four-step process:
1. Dabbling.
2. Doing old things in old ways.
3. Doing old things in new ways.
4. Doing new things in new ways. - 11 more annotations...
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The result was pretty much like what came before; some elements may have been lost, but the results were certainly cheaper, and far more efficient.
-
"I used to have to tell my students about phenomena, or have them read; now I can show them,"
-
When we begin adding digital demonstrations through video and Flash animation, we are giving students new, better ways to get information.
-
The missing technological element is true one-to-one computing, in which each student has a device he or she can work on, keep, customize, and take home. For true technological advance to occur, the computers must be personal to each learner.
-
In the past, the pressure against disruption has always been stronger than the pressure for change. So, as new technologies -- from radio to television, from telephones to cell phones, from cameras to video cams, or even Wikipedia -- have come down the pike, American public schools have fearfully stood ready to exclude them. Change hasn't happened.
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First, consult the students. They are far ahead of their educators in terms of taking advantage of digital technology and using it to their advantage. We cannot, no matter how hard we try or how smart we are (or think we are), invent the future education of our children for them. The only way to move forward effectively is to combine what they know about technology with what we know and require about education.
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For the digital age, we need new curricula, new organization, new architecture, new teaching, new student assessments, new parental connections, new administration procedures, and many other elements.
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What we're talking about is invention -- new things in new ways. Change is the order of the day in our kids' twenty-first-century lives. It ought to be the order of the day in their schools as well. Not only would students welcome it, they will soon demand it.
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Some people will no doubt worry that, with all this experimentation, our children's education will be hurt. "When will we have time for the curriculum," they will ask, "and for all the standardized testing being mandated?" If we really offered our children some great future-oriented content (such as, for example, that they could learn about nanotechnology, bioethics, genetic medicine, and neuroscience in neat interactive ways from real experts), and they could develop their skills in programming, knowledge filtering, using their connectivity, and maximizing their hardware, and that they could do so with cutting-edge, powerful, miniaturized, customizable, and one-to-one technology, I bet they would complete the "standard" curriculum in half the time it now takes, with high test scores all around. To get everyone to the good stuff, the faster kids would work with and pull up the ones who were behind.
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In other words, if we truly offer our kids an Edutopia worth having, I believe our students will work as hard as they can to get there.
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So, let's not just adopt technology into our schools. Let's adapt it, push it, pull it, iterate with it, experiment with it, test it, and redo it, until we reach the point where we and our kids truly feel we've done our very best. Then, let's push it and pull it some more. And let's do it quickly, so the twenty-second century doesn't catch us by surprise with too much of our work undone.
A big effort? Absolutely. But our kids deserve no less.
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Public Stiky Notes
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