Two great collections of educational Web 2.0 resources have recently become available:

• My friend Donna Baumbach's WebTools4U2 Use is a fabulous, comprehensive compilation of tools in a variety of categories. The collection is the result of a recent survey of over 600 library media specialists, so you know the tools are field tested.
• Top 100 Tools Spring 2008 Summary PDF from Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day (thanks to Stephen Abrams for the heads up) is a very interesting compilation of popular online tools that compares their ranking from 2007-2008. Jane slices and dices the tools into categories as well and offers a Top 25 list for those of us with a touch of ADD.
  

I've added these to other illustrious resources that list and describe electronic learning tools on my Dipping One's Toes in the Stream of Social Networking wiki including:

• CSLA’s School Library Learning 2.0 <http://schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com>
• Joyce Valenza’s New Tools workshop wiki <http://joycevalenzaworkshop.wikispaces.com/>
• Library Media Specialist 2.0 - Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson <http://eduscapes.com/sessions/slms2/index.htm>
• Shambles Web 2.0 tools <http://www.shambles.net/web2/>

A list o' lists...  Thanks to all the hard work by the individuals who've created and maintained these guides.

So, if you had but an hour and wanted to introduce just the top three most productive online tools for teachers, which three would they be? My nominations would be:

• Del.icio.us
• Wikispaces
• Slideshare

And yours? Just three. Just one hour. Just your normal classroom teacher.

Artichoke in New Zealand has a terrific post about "Things you seldom hear discussed at an (e) learning conference."

First, he suggests a TED video by long time educational technology skeptic Clifford Stoll. For many years, Stoll has had the courage to ask what sort of message we send to children when we plunk them down in front of a piece of machinery rather than spending personal time with them.

“...kids love these high-tech devices and play happily with them for hours. But just because children do something willingly doesn’t mean that it engages their minds. Indeed most software for children turns lessons into games. The popular arithmetic Math Blaster simulates an arcade shoot-’em-down, complete with enemy flying saucers. Such instant gratification keeps kids clicking icons while discouraging any sense of studiousness or sustained mental effort. Plop a kid down before such a program and the message is, “You have to learn math tables, so play with this computer.” Teach the same lesson with flash cards, and a different message comes through: “You’re important to me, and this subject is so useful that I’ll spend an hour teaching you arithmetic.” (Stoll, Clifford, “Invest in Humanware.” New York Times, May 19, 1996.)

I have always enjoyed reading the hard-eyed look at educational technology by critics like Stoll, like like Jane (Failure to Connect) Healy, like Larry(Over Sold and Underused) Cuban, and especially like the Fools Gold and Tech Tonic reports by the Alliance for Childhood.

Even better than the Stoll link, Artichoke begins a response to the late Neil Postman's Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change in which he succinctly summarized the concerns Postman often addressed in his longer works:

1. ... all technological change is a trade-off. ...  culture always pays a price for technology.
2. ...the advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are never distributed evenly among the population. 
3. ...Embedded in every technology there is a powerful idea, sometimes two or three powerful ideas. These ideas are often hidden from our view because they are of a somewhat abstract nature. But this should not be taken to mean that they do not have practical consequences. 
4. ...consequences of technological change are always vast, often unpredictable and largely irreversible 
5. ...When a technology become mythic, it is always dangerous because it is then accepted as it is, and is therefore not easily susceptible to modification or control.
   

OK, this is a teaser. Read and comment over on Artichoke. He raises some outstanding questions about technology in education based on the Postman's ideas.

Oh, for the antithesis of Postman, check this out by Ray Kurzweil - "Expect Exponential Progress":

Yet as powerful as information technology is today, we will make another billionfold increase in capability (for the same cost) over the next 25 years. That's because information technology builds on itself – we are continually using the latest tools to create the next so they grow in capability at an exponential rate. This doesn't just mean snazzier cellphones. It means that change will rock every aspect of our world. The exponential growth in computing speed will unlock a solution to global warming and solve myriad other worldly conundrums.

Thanks to its exponential power, only technology possesses the scale to address the major challenges – such as energy and the environment, disease and poverty – confronting society.

Technology - bane or boon to our world? How educators use (or don't use) technology with students will be the determining factor.

The photo and caption appeared front page, above-the-fold in this morning's Mankato Free Press daily newspaper.  It was accompanied by this article with the headline "2005 referendum funding digital revolution." I read, as always, with great trepidation.

But the article was positive and pretty darned accurate as these things go. Thanks, reporter Tanner Kent! I just hope Ed the superintendent, gives it a positive review.

I am not sure how we do it, but our district has always managed to maintain a good relationship with the local press. While it helps that we are a very well-run district, we are also open, honest, available, and considerate to our reporters and newspaper editors.

A policy that I believe has a positive impact - indirectly - on kids.