Comments on: Leadership Challenge–Look ahead

By: Margie

Margie — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:36:05 +0000

Carolyn,
More food for thought about changing schools, if you haven’t yet read it: Disrupting Class by Clayten Christensen and Michael Horn.

By: Stella Gorlin

Stella Gorlin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:50:27 +0000

It’s very interesting to think about learning spaces and how they can encourage or discourage active learning and teaching. While I agree that educators need to consider how little our current buildings accommodate this new generation of millenials, it’s also important to consider the needs of the educators themselves as well as the communities in which these learning spaces reside. An important element of the social contract of public education is the necessity of having an actual, physical environment in which adolescents are kept busy and productive while their parents tend to other things. While the idea of a virtual classroom is appealing, in practice it could cause a slew of unforeseen problems. Likewise, what is the role of the teacher in this Brave New World? Whenever I see discussions of technology in education taking place, it often seems as though the teacher has become peripheral to the learning process. Why not just use computerized instructors to conduct virtual lessons?

By: Techxas

Techxas — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:12:39 +0000

I think about these things when I see Pico Projectors that are going to be embedded in newer cell phones. And when I read that Google is releasing its own Operating System that may be free and run entirely on the web. The cost of a netbook is about $200 and going down in the next few months. I don’t necessarily look at just the schools and student populations for purchasing 1:1 computers. I wonder about it for the entire community of our town and to provide 1:1 learning opportunities online for the city. It just seems like we could be doing so much more if we looked beyond limits. The technology has changed our learning opportunities already but we still have blinders on.