Not sure we want or need one-to-one. If you look at what McKenzie http://www.fno.org/jan02/overequipped.html wrote on over equiping and what literacy expert Beers says about vocabulary instruction, you may come to the same conclusion, that fewer than one-to-one is preferable.

Given that all cellphones CAN search the internet, be it in limited fashion, via Google SMS, how can we engage students in socially collaborative activities that facilitate learning in a given subject area? There are lots of opportunities if we are trying to move up levels of Bloom’s taxonomy instead of merely preparing students for content based state exams.

Here’s a thought: Allow students to use Google SMS for state exams, then redesign test to require students to USE the information they will have access to anywhere for the rest of their lives (if they are not on an airplane or in a classroom).

Mark

Thanks for your comment. The voice of students is so important to us (teachers).

I appreciate your statement, “So while technology has the ability to help, it can also hinder the learning experience. What ways could help prevent the unhelpful aspects, while keeping the useful parts of technology?”

That is our true struggle – along with some teachers’ fear of tech, which you also mention.

I agree with your premise that we need to be helping you for “later in life” as well. Additionally, I would like to think that we help you for the “here and now” too. Today’s dream is tomorrow’s reality…so I hope we can help you begin to dream.

All the best to you, Bre.

As I read my first question, I should have worded it better. What I meant to ask was how important is it (to you) that teachers use the technology? It appears that you have done well in spite of the technology not being used.

I think you actually answer that question in your second paragraph. YOU took responsibility for your learning and took advantage of what was offered to you in school, regardless of the amount of technology it entailed.

I think one of the things teacher/bloggers have overlooked (as well as the political edicts on education) is the role of the student. There has to be a desire on the part of the student to want to learn, do better, and improve their “life possibilities.” It appears that you have that, and that you educational opportunities allowed you to increase your abilities to be ready for your “real world” whatever it may be.

GOOD FOR YOU, ELI.

Thanks for the teaching you have provided me (and us) in this forum.

Thanks Will for the best discussion I’ve seen in a blog post in years – maybe ever.

To answer your second question, I ultimately think my love of learning has fostered my preparedness. Starting at a very young age I was always interested in how the world worked. As I grew older I continued to challenge myself in everything I could. Even if I wasn’t ready for the challenge at the time, the experience would end up accelerating me far past what I would have achieved had I taken easy options. To sum it up, I think kids need to be taught at a very young age how much there is to learn, and teachers need to always challenge their students, not with trivial busywork, but mentally enriching tasks.

First, some teachers are terrified of technology. I have had classes taught in “Smart Classrooms” where the only time the technology was touched was to dust it off at the end of the year. Some teachers have not been exposed to technology beyond their television remote or cell phone and have no idea what to do with the technology given to them. While there are certain teachers who have technology, know how to use it, and use it well, they seem few and far between at my school. An example of a teacher who can actually use technology in a beneficial manner was my IB Biology teacher. He would go over notes in a PowerPoint form that we were to download and print prior to the class and during class we would flush out the notes with what he called “depth and detail,” which kept us learning in the classroom and not just have notes written for us. While in his class, I remember many educational videos over the internet being watched and those helped quite a bit. Another technology related part of his class was that he allowed us to text, as long as it was not at inappropriate times, like during his lectures, and did not distract too much from the task at hand. I found this to be brilliant, because from what I have noticed, it takes a lot more effort, time, and concentration to try to sneak a text than to simply pull out your phone, text, and then continue learning. I can say, without a doubt, that he is one of the best teachers at the school. However, this status is not reached through his use of technology, it was his teaching style and his ability to actually get information through to the students, though technology has definitely helped his capabilities. When teachers use all of their resources in a purposeful way it does help kids learn. Although, with that being said, there are also teachers who try to use technology but it is just out of their grasp. When a teacher tries to use technology but it turns into a twenty minute break while he/she tries to figure out how to turn on the projector, which plug goes where, or what have you, it just impedes learning in the classroom, rather than being something that can help. To me, it seems to me to be a waste of money to fully equip rooms with technology that will not be used (or used well) by the teachers.

This leads to the idea of the threat of children’s personal technology becoming a distraction in the classroom. In my classes, people are allowed to bring their laptops to take notes or work on various assignments, if they want. Though in my experience, people use laptops for games instead of actually doing something productive. For instance, in my Theory of Knowledge class, we often got free time to work on our Extended Essays, or our Internal Assessments, or anything, our teacher just gave us one condition that we actually had to work. Though it seemed that every time this work time was given to us, at least five people would pull out their laptops and proceed to play games on them and three people would be crowded around an iPhone, also playing games on that. Very few students used technology for good instead of evil.
Another important factor to take into account would be the expense of providing laptops or other technology to students who cannot provide their own. In my high school, there is much economic diversity. There would be many people who would need to be provided a laptop and that would be very expensive. My school district is definitely not the richest and I doubt that they would be able to give every kid a laptop who needs one when they can barely afford to give us textbooks that are not falling apart.

So while technology has the ability to help, it can also hinder the learning experience. What ways could help prevent the unhelpful aspects, while keeping the useful parts of technology?

I also agree with Eli, that teachers need to teach to help the students later in life, that’s what school is supposed to do, right? And while I do not know how this can be achieved either, but to me, it does not seem that I am being prepared for life, rather, that I have been learning how to take notes and that does not seem to be the best way possibly to help with “real world” experiences.

I really appreciate your thoughts and ideas. What the education bloggers need more than anything in the next ten years is to listen to the students they teach.

I have one question (in two parts), not meant in any way to be derogatory:

Is it required that students receive the type of education you are describing (and hoping for) to prepare you for the “real world” do-it-yourself capabilities that will be expected?

Here’s why I ask, and the 2nd part of the same question.

You obviously are well-prepared for future “real-life” problem solving. What role did your education (even without the use of the technology) play in getting you to this obvious point of preparedness?

Again, I am seriously wanting to get a student’s take on this. I’m working through what the purpose of k12 public education should be, and what is really required to accomplish the task.

Thanks again, Eli.

1. State of technology in my district. At a district level, we have a “classes” portal that allows teachers to have an online component to their curriculum if they so choose, where they can post assignments and hold discussion boards. Also, you can download the notes for the days lectures if you missed class.

In my school, we have a wireless network that students can access. However, I don’t know of a class that uses it as part of the curriculum. Mostly, it’s just for kids to have internet access without going to the school library or computer labs.

In each department of our school(Math/Science/Social Studies/English), there is at least one classroom that has been upgraded to a “Smart Room.” These rooms have a projector in the ceiling, a laptop, document camera, and a Smart Board. Even though I like these rooms, I think many are underused. My math class last year almost never used any functionality of it at all. However, in AP Economics we use it a fair bit for lectures and videos.

2. District supplied technology for those who cannot access it. I know, I wouldn’t want to be the kid using the district supplied Netbook while most of my class was on their brand new laptops and iPhones. My school district goes to great lengths to conceal the economic situation’s of its students. What I am saying is that not that many kids want to be seen and judged by their fellow students when they use technology that may not be up to spec with the rest of the kids, even if that doesn’t impair their education.

3. What I would like to see. I am a proud owner of a Nook, basically a Kindle made by Barnes and Noble. I did not purchase it for school, I just got it because I like to read. However, I think if textbook makers made eBooks of their textbooks available, it would be amazing. However, I have not found any eBook copies of any of my current or past textbooks. Imagine a school where kids didn’t need to lug around their 30lb backpack, and instead carried all of it in the size of a paperback book. A nice thing about this, is that students with eBook readers could choose not to check out a hard copy, and just be “loaned” an eBook copy by the school.

But what I would most like to see is a gradual paradigm shift of education that would more realistically grow the skills needed in the real world(but I’m still in high school, what do I know?). Anyway, I find there is a big difference in the way some students think. For a lot of students, they don’t grasp the big picture of what they are learning. This is make or break in some classes. My best example is AP Calculus BC, which is a pretty tough class for high schoolers. In this class I can truly see the difference in thought processes that students have, and how they learned math in the past. Some kids in my class never realized how what they had learned before could help them here. This is the difference I see between college classes(AP/IB) and high school classes. In high school classes, students learn to remember information for 2-4 weeks, take a test and forget it until the final, where it is then forgotten forever. Then they get into a class that requires their previous knowledge and they are totally bewildered when someone tells them they actually had to remember what they learned.

Where does technology fit into this? Even though my math teacher is one of the best teachers in my school, besides a calculator we have never used technology at all in the class, so Calculus isn’t my best example for how technology should be used. Nonetheless, teachers need to realize how to harness the massive technological capabilities of their students. Most of my teachers do the same thing, give some notes, give an assignment that is in some way based on those notes. Herein is the problem, nothing in the “real” world actually works this way. In common workplace, you are given a task and you have a certain amount of time to do it. Your boss doesn’t spend 90 minutes beforehand teaching you how to do it, you’re expected to know how to do it, or at least get started. What I want to see is assignments that are actually relevant, will test my total knowledge, and not waste my time testing how well I took notes. How should teachers change this? Honestly, I don’t know, but I foresee lots of technology involved. Your job is to find out how to do it. Good luck.

TL;DR: Change the way kids learn using technology so that they actually LEARN.