The question is to determine if the technology drives the project or is it the project that drives the technology. According to Sean Capelle, and I agree, it has the be the project that drives the technology. If we develop the project with an end goal, based on standards, then we can decide what technology would be best. If we are just creating a blog or a wiki for the sake of doing it, there is no end goal or "real" purpose to it. The expectations would be blurry and the children would feel lost. We don't assign work for the sake of being busy, we assign for the sake of learning.
In the article, It's Not About the Tool, Capelle refers to Richardsons' Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful Web tools for the classrooms book. It states: "These tools, when implemented in classrooms, will prepare students for comprehending new literacy mediums and new challenges that the future holds." This is exactly what I have been preaching to my administration/board. We need to prepare these students for the future, which includes all technology, and the schools need to evolve with the world around us. It is probably hard to swallow coming from the Health/PE teacher, but they are not receptive to my complaints on the food we feed our students either, so I suppose it doesn't really matter what my field is.
On Richardsons' wiki he quotes "It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change" – Charles Darwin. His site is worth checking out. I enjoy his interpretation of technology and the quotes he uses to spark conversation about the future.
I see much the same thing. And the focus locally seems to be on reducing costs at any c.. well at any costs. In the larger arena the focus seems to be on standardization and a concerted effort on the reduction of education into a commodity. The problem being that children are not all the same, and they are the ones who suffer.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but I do think that sometimes we need the trial and error of implementing a tool before we know how we want to use it. For example, I found this great web 2.0 tool (Museum box) and it just seemed like a really fun application so I set up some assignments around the tool. The first ones didn't work so well but then, through that experience, I was able to find a way to integrate the tool into a more appropriate lesson... this is something I wouldn't have thought of if I had simply looked for a piece of technology to go with the same old dish I had been serving. Does that make sense?
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