The Savvy Technologist

Ed Tech Coast to Coast #3: Access to technology

Tim Lauer couldn’t make it, but that didn’t stop Steve, Will, and me from recording another episode of Ed Tech Coast to Coast Tuesday night.

Our conversation centered mostly on the topic of access to technology and how full-time access changes the teaching and learning environment. Will’s school just launched a tablet PC project for teachers, and we’re in the second year of a 1-to-1 project with 600 elementary students and their teachers. We’ve both found that if teachers let it happen, 1-to-1 environments can change the day to day work of teaching and learning dramatically.

Are we approaching a day when not providing a computing device to each and every student constitutes educational malpractice? A laptop changes nothing by itself, of course, without a well-trained teacher to create and facilitate learning activities that exploit the technology. At least if you send the technology home with the students they can explore things on their own regardless of what goes on at school.

Download: ETC2C-20050922 (19.5 MB, 42:32)