Comments on: Speaking at the ATA

By: Education 4 the 21st Century

Education 4 the 21st Century — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 04:36:55 +0000

[...] If I were to add anything to the three questions listed above, I would add a question that I found in this post by The Savvy Technologist. He writes about a recent presentation that he gave at an education administrators conference. After waking the audience up with some very intriguing predictions about immerging technologies and technology integration in the classroom (AND workforce), he left his audience with this question: What are you doing right now to prepare your students to collaborate seamlessly across cultures in jobs that probably don’t yet exist? [...]

By: Laurie

Laurie — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 05:02:35 +0000

Speaking to the point of preparing our students for the future that we are unsure of . . . I think every teacher should be required to read _The World is Flat_ by Thomas Freidman. It will really get you thinking – that is if you’re thinking about the kids parked in the seats of your classroom.

By: Irrelevence vs Irreverance at Tangled up in Purple

Irrelevence vs Irreverance at Tangled up in Purple — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 20:37:59 +0000

[...] and this perspective from an earlier post by the same person: Old teaching methods don’t work with today’s kids. I raised a few eyebrows when I suggested that the act of a teacher consciously deciding not to use advanced technology with his or her students might be considered educational malpractice. [...]

By: Tim Wilson

Tim Wilson — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 14:26:48 +0000

Great point, Bjorn. I’ve seen many more horrible PowerPoint presentations than good ones. I don’t think most teachers realize how long it takes to create really good presentations with PowerPoint. Unless you have the skills to make complex animations, there are times when you can’t beat writing on the board.

By: Bjorn

Bjorn — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 01:58:37 +0000

Hi Tim-
Even though I’ve moved on to other things, I’ll always be a geek at heart and I enjoy your perspective!

As much as I agree with you out of my own experiences training teachers and administrators to use new technology, do you think that there is also a risk in embracing new technology simply to keep up? I say this out of an experience I had last week with one of my professors. She is not a very good lecturer – her lectures are very confusing. During a recent review session she forgot the VGA dongle for her iBook and had to use good ‘ol chalk dust instead. As soon as she started writing on the board, things made perfect sense to everyone. By drawing her own diagrams rather than pointing to illustrations on a PPT presentation, we were able to ride her train of thought with her and she did a much better job of illustrating the concepts she was trying to teach.

My point is that she tried to use technology (and powerpoint isn’t even new technology) but she didn’t use it effectively – I had similar experiences in college. Would you agree that as important as it is to keep up to date, it’s critically important to understand the technology and how it can and can’t be effectively used? And along with that, ineffective use of new technology can often be worse than the old methods it replaces.

By: Tim Wilson

Tim Wilson — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 16:41:52 +0000

Kaye, your question about safety issues is an important one. Recent media reports seem to by overhyping the danger in my opinion. I believe a measured, educational response is appropriate. We should be teaching online safety just like we teach bus safety, behavior around strangers, etc. The online world is as much a part of these kids’ lives as going to the mall.

By: Kaye Pope

Kaye Pope — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 02:36:28 +0000

Tim [and Scott]
I was one of the administrators present at the ATA in Jackson. I found the presentation on Blogging and Podcasting in Education to be most enlightening. I was especially interested in using the blogging for student journaling–becoming a published author with a world-wide audience was an interesting slant. Is there a “safety” issue/problem with students publishing personal information as the teacher can not “control” all blog entries?
Thanks for a great session and some really good ideas. I feel those administrators present were open and receptive to technology and the limitless possibilites it affords. We may not have seemed to be the most enlightened audience you have addressed, but if we knew it all we would not have been there!

By: Tim Wilson

Tim Wilson — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 18:22:30 +0000

I don’t have a transcript or recording. I didn’t have it all written out in advance, and I wasn’t sure whether the sound system in the room would work with my recording gear. I will try to record the talk if I get to do it again somewhere.

As far as the reception goes, I guess I’ll have to wait and see when I get the comments from the conference evaluation form that most of the attendees filled out at the end of the day. There wasn’t any booing or hissing, so I guess that’s a good sign. I don’t think the group overall was very aware of some of the emerging technology trends. Only a handful had heard of Skype, for example. So I was trying to shake them up a little bit without being too critical of the present state of things. I’ll look forward to reading those comments.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 16:54:57 +0000

Tim –

As a school administrator who is often frustrated with many teachers’ reluctance to embrace technology, I am wondering how your address was received. Obviously, administrators who were in attendance were probably supportive of the cause, but I’m wondering what kind of feedback you received on their struggles to get teachers on board.

Also – do you have a transcript or podcast of your address? I’d like to see it in its entirety!

– Scott