I would like to start my reflections on the mobile and wireless technology seminar with some questions fellow teachers raised regards the implications of the use of mobile technologies in education.
As you can guess not many participants are convinced regards the importance of incorporating mobile and innovative technologies in education. Follow are some of the questions often raised:
- “Laptops make a good school better, but they don’t make a bad school good” (Fellow twitter-@dajbleshaw)
- “In a class with perfect equipment and perfect teacher – will a perfect teaching and learning occurs? Are the pace, depth and outcomes achieved in this class satisfying?”Reeva, Israel
- “What can a laptop/ other gadgets provide that a pen and pencil can not?”
- The following movie from the Series South Park illustrate classroom situation when computers are used by students http://vimeo.com/4689743
Agree/ disagree? Please share your experience and thoughts.
Filed under: Technology | Tagged: disengagement, mobile, Technology |
Ariellah's Technoblog 
1. A nice quip but fallacious nonetheless. As David Whiley mentioned, computers are an amplifier and a school may be bad because the good is drowned out. Therefore there is no reason to say computers can’t make a bad school better – they can amplify the good if used correctly.
2. Perfect teaching is a misnomer unless your talking about 1:1 teacher:student ratio. Teaching is a medium for learning and the best media have many levels (including pace, depth and outcomes) that talk to different audiences.
3. This is surely not a serious contention these days. It like asking “What does modern transport systems provide that walking doesn’t?” Not a great analogy I admit but there’s SO MANY things that computers enable that pen and paper cannot.
4. South Park, cutting to the truth as ever.
Thank you Sadler for the thoughtful comments. I somehow feel that we have missed a lot by you being behind the lens and not one of the participants in the seminar. Especially when there seem to be so few of us passionate about the role technology can play in education.
I hope your comments will reach some…
Until then we have work to do.
Working on my next post (on a more positive note – professor Drori most inspiring presentation)