Ann Lusch's List: Technology in the classroom

• The connection, therefore is the new technology.
  
  A lot of folks don't understand this. To them, the computer is the technology. And computers have been around for a long time.
  
  But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the network itself. We're talking about the paradigm of immediate global connection. We're talking about social technology.
  

  • This is what Will R. seemed to saying when he visited. This is the thought that chipped away at my skepticism. It's not about using tools to do the same thing differently. It's about doing different things. It's a new world out there... like it or not.

• Some argue that in contemporary society, our students need to learn how to multitask effectively.  I would argue just the opposite: that today's young people - and adults, for that matter, myself included - need to learn to STOP multitasking, and to focus on one task, with concentration, for an extended period of time.  My classroom may be one of the only places that students have the chance, and the obligation, to do that.  By forcing them to put their phones and laptops away, I am giving them the opportunity to stop the random, jittery stimulation and instant information that surrounds them at all times, and instead turn their attention to a deep and slow understanding of one specific text, idea or question.

• http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2007/12/dont-hang-up-on-your-students-futures.html

   

  http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2008/04/technology-and-equity.html

   

  http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2008/11/bringing-back-channel-forward.html

   

  http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/

• "As far as I'm concerned, teachers and students collaborate on the students' learning, but it is the teacher, finally, who shapes and guides the content."

   

  I am not sure I agree with this characterization of the relationship teacher and student have with content.  Ultimately, perception and meaning of any stimuli are the direct jurisdiction of the one experiencing it.  In the end the student chooses which stimuli to pay attention to.  All meaning derived from whatever that student chooses to focus on happens within the student. This is why engagement ought to be the primary goal of the teacher.  If a teacher is sufficiently engaging there will be no need to argue about whether or not a cell phone is present.  If the content of the lesson is engaging enough either the student will not want to use the cell phone or will use it to support what they are engaged with in the class.  If cell phones are a problem in a teacher's classroom it is most likely the result of disengaged students.
• web 2.0 guives a lot of tools that can be use with cellphones, I think that if students persist usign them in class, you should stop making of that a problem but using tools like twitter to develop some activities, not the whole class but if students see that it's not prohibited they probably stop doing it, specially teens.

2 more annotations...

• Greater resources for teachers, greater transparency in government, and a focus on getting past the filter of the textbook industry and tackling primary sources head-on.

• The Visible Knowledge Project was a collaborative scholarship of teaching and learning project exploring the impact of technology on learning, primarily in the humanities.