techLearning offers an analysis of laptop initiatives. The piece examines what we know and what some observers think about the potential of what some describe as one-to-one computing. The major issue continues to be the cost relative to the benefit of such initiatives.
From time to time, I have commented on recent work being conducted exploring the potential of computer games. I have recently discovered a site associated with the Woodrow Wilson Center that offers great background information.
Wilson Center’s Foresight and Governance Project hosted a two-day workshop Game-based Learning Models & Simulations: Expert Blueprints for Project Success, to explore how the management and performance of three sectors ??? hospitals, high schools, and parks ??? can be improved using game-based simulation, learning, and training technologies.
The video streams provide some very interesting material.
I am working on the book revision and attempting to address an issue that continually surfaces as a criticism – why isn’t the investment in technology having a stronger influence on learners? Part of the answer is – the learners do not spend much time using technology. Why?
I think we used to assume that the issue was a problem in teacher preparation. Cuban argued a counter position when he noted that technology integration was not really happening even when teachers were sophisticated users.
Russell, Bebell, O’Dwyer & O’Connor have reached a similar conclusion. In fact, their data seem to indicate that new teachers feel confident and skilled themselves, but use technology less in the classroom that teachers who have been in the system 6-10 years. Pretty hard to explain this away as an access or a teacher preparation issue. Maybe this just means new teachers just have too many challenges and don’t see tech integration as essential. Maybe this means personal technology skills are not the same as technology-based instructional skills. If this finding generalizes, this will be an interesting observation to explain.
Viruses are not the only threat to the security of your computer. Spyware and adware, small programs downloaded when you visit certain web sites, can also be a danger. This Washington Post article describes the problems and some recommended solutions.
eSchool News describes the effort to tailor new search engines to “scientific content” and describes Scirus a search engine supported by the publisher Elsevier. Scirus scours the web for documents that have scientific bibliographies and are structured according to scientific norms. Scirus is a free service.
What do schools attempt to accomplish with their web sites (assuming they have one)? Do the intend to offer resources for parents, an outlet for student projects, the latest sports scores, or what? Do school web sites follow recommended design principles?