The only sane driver on the road

Did you ever notice how badly other people drive on the highway? Every person you encounter is either going at a snail's pace or doing some kind of Mad Max impersonation.

The only person driving at the correct speed (exactly 7 mph above the posted speed limit) is you.

I thought about this illusion last week when visiting with a second grade teacher in one of our buildings. I poked my nose in her class when I saw her students were in small groups - and one group was using iPads. When I asked her how things were going, she was apologetic. "Yes, I use the iPads I have and they work great. But I only use them for math for kids to show and discuss their work as they use Educreations."

I reassured her that even if she was "only using them for math" she had a better handle on their use than probably 90% of the rest of the teachers on the planet. 

Technology user "stand outs" - like the drivers we encounter on the road - are those that are mulish late adopters or wild experimentalists. The sane, one-step-at-a-time, rational practitioners just don't get much attention. They just do the job.

A shout out to the sane tech drivers in our classrooms. 

Poster power on Twitter

I've noticed an increasing number of Tweeters are getting around the 140 character limit by using links to graphics. I worry that this may raise Twitter's level of discourse above its usual bumpersticker simplicity, requiring that nuanced views actually be considered. I'm not sure today's political or educational climate will allow this.

So far the posters have as little depth as text posts, thank goodness. But they do look more profound.

Have a good week...

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The 140 character discussion

BFTP: A better question

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post, March 2, 2009. (Be sure to read the comments from the original post.) As the tech department works ever more closely with our curriculum, teaching and learning, and professional development departments, this post makes an increasing amount of sense...

…technology is an accelerator of greatness already in place, never the principal cause of greatness or decline. – Newsweek, April 29, 2002

At a conference last week, Mark Weston from Dell computing stated that asking the question, "Does technology improve student learning?" is the wrong question.

The question should be, "Does technology support the practices that improve student learning?"

Is this a semantic trifle or is it actually profound? What are the implications for technology deployment and evaluation? What drives your tech planning? Should it be initiatives like these?

The direct link between information technologies and learning does not exist anymore than the direct link between a good stove and a good meal; a good automobile and a good vacation; a good word processor and a good book; or a good camera and good art.

This view, of course, has been expressed many times, in many ways. My own Tech Upgrade is one way; my advocacy for looking at best practices in the content areas, another. But I rather liked the simplicty of of Weston's alternate question.

Now if educators could only agree on what actual practices contribute to student learning, it would make the tech director's job a good deal easier.

And shouldn't all educators' efforts be bent toward that sole purpose?