Industry Trends

It’s a very exciting day in Education Technology!

Learn more about the brand new Latitude 2100 netbooks on Direct2Dell from Lionel Menchaca and the team behind this game-changing technology.

Enrique Tapia discusses the all-new 2100 and shares Dell's vision of a Connected Classroom.

Once you have checked out these posts, stay tuned to Edu4U and join the education conversation.

Heartfelt thanks to our previous bloggers. A careful albeit somewhat self-fulfilling review of your postings seems to reveal an emerging thread. One that, from my vantage point, indicates agreement that the best way forward is for schools to focus explicitly on the nature of teaching, especially the pedagogical content knowledge areas that comprise it (Shulman, 1986, 1987) and the role that computers can play in that process (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Such focus entails education stakeholders answering some key questions.

• What is a school’s vision for teaching and learning?
• What does the research indicate about practices that contribute to attaining that vision?
• What has been the school’s experience with realizing its vision and carrying out those practices at scale? And how do computers serve the vision of the school by addressing the practice of better teaching and learning?

A genuine answering of these sorts of questions will help link the depth and quality of teachers’ knowledge and skill with their use of computers. I believe that when such linkages are in place enhancing teaching, learning, and increasing student achievement will be much more likely.

Chances are that in the past week you've received an email that pretends to be from your bank, e-commerce vendor, or other online site. Hopefully you've realized that many times this email is fake - a phishing or spam email. The sender (phisher) of these fake e-mails wants you to click on the link and go to a phishing Website. Once on the phishers Website they hope to obtain your account, financial, credit and even identity information. Of course not every email you receive is a phish. In fact you should expect your bank or e-commerce vendor to send you legitimate email. But how can you tell the difference?

Well that's what the Phishing IQ test is all about, give it a try – Dr. Phil and Opera have!

http://www.sonicwall.com/phishing/

Todays post is authored by guest blogger Rebecca Randall, VP of Outreach at Common Sense Media.  You can download and view her entire bio at this link.

Let’s face it: Kids love mobile technology and its here to stay. Schools across the country have been struggling with how to manage cell phone use during school hours, with some banning the use of phones altogether and others coming up with innovative ways to integrate mobile phones into the curriculum.

Just a few weeks ago, researchers at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center released the study, Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning, that calls on educators, researchers, and the government to find ways to incorporate mobile technology, like cell phones, for learning both in and out of the classroom. The report recommends steps to gradually introduce mobile devices in schools, beginning with an experimentation phase in which teachers are trained for integrating interactive mobile media and students learn skills and appropriate behaviors.

What do you think? Can mobile technology help kids learn? At what grade do you think it’s appropriate to introduce mobile technology into the classroom?

Even if incorporating mobile technology seems like a long way off for your school, it’s never too early to teach kids how to use mobile technology appropriately. And teaming up with your school’s parent body can really kick-start your efforts. Bring your parents and faculty together to discuss your school policies and offer parents guidance on how to mentor their kids on using their cell phones in a safe, smart and responsible way. Common Sense Media resources make it easy. We’ve got all the materials you need—including a cell phone tip sheet, video, and discussion guide—to help make it a meaningful dialogue.

Cathleen Norris is a Regents Professor at the University of North Texas and co-founder and Chief Education Architect at GoKnow in Ann Arbor, Mich. Elliot Soloway is
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan and co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at GoKnow.

Elliot: We attended three great sessions at CoSN in Austin this week.

Cathie: Let me see, you must be counting our session on the use of cellphone computers in K-12 as one of those sessions.

Elliot: <big grin goes here> And, the three sessions really complimented each other.

Cathie: Ok, let’s start with the session by Mark Weston, Director of Education for Dell. Mark talked about the next generation of 1:1 where the devices were netbooks – or cellphone computers – and the major computing and file storage was “in the cloud.”

Elliot: Unlike the networks that supported timesharing – the forerunner of cloud computing, today we know how to build reliable, high speed networks. And, using Stoneware’s “private cloud” infrastructure, a user can truly have a “desktop experience” with a limited computing device.

Cathie: That’s because unlike the laptop 1:1 implementations that were unsustainable economically, the cloud-based 1:1 implementations have a lower TCO (total cost of ownership) due to lower device costs (e.g., using low cost netbooks, cellphone computers, or even outdated PC’s), lower maintenance costs because end-user devices require less support, and lower maintenance due to centralizing the computing and server farm.

Elliot: Moving on to the next great session, Mark Horn, co-author with
Clayton Christensen, of “Disrupting Class” gave the closing keynote. Horn, with CC coming in on a pre-recorded video, applied “disruption theory” to K-12 education. Horn argued that to personalize instruction to address the fact that we all learn in different ways, we needed a low-cost way to modularize the delivery of instruction. Our current 1 teacher-30 student model was too coarse a grained-modularization. In contrast, online, computer-based learning can provide individual students with specific instruction – at a very economical cost.

Cathie: If we put Weston and Horn & Christensen’s views together, we get low-cost, cloud-based 1:1, with each and every student online at school and at home and thus, they can either be receiving individualized instruction or group/class instruction. The Weston cloud 1:1 model is a way to provide modular, personalized instruction within the current school-based environment.

Elliot: Weston did say that cloud 1:1 was a game-changer. He avoided the term “disruptive” since that term can have negative connotations.

Cathie: And let’s bring in that third great session – our session, where we focused on the use of cellphone computers.

Elliot: Absolutely! The devices that the students are using within the cloud 1:1 need to be mobile devices – kids learning EVERYWHERE. Since kids these days already have a powerful computer in their pocket, why not just use it as the end-user device for cloud 1:1 implementations?

Cathie: If you recall, Elliot, Weston’s slide for the cloud 1:1 end-user devices did depict cellphone computers.

Elliot: Hmm... I think I was under the table finding a plug for my monster laptop when that slide came up.

Cathie: That’s the point! You need a mobile computer, not a transportable laptop--you and the kids.

Elliot: Finally, the pieces are coming together where computing technology will have a positive, disruptive, game changing, impact on K-12.

Cathie: Yes, the technology may finally be ready – but we need to get our curriculum resources and professional development services to support that technological innovation.

Elliot: Spot on, as usual. But, can we solve those problems in another blog tomorrow?

Cathie: I will hold you to writing that blog, Elliot; education in America is in serious need of fixing and everyone needs to contribute. Indeed, blog readers what is your opinion of the issues we raised in our blog posting?