Blog review number 3

I came across this blog by chance and really lucked out.  The reason I say this is because on the discussion board of our AQ course we have been talking about integrating technology in the classroom.  As educators we walk a fine line in merely letting the students run wild or actually teaching them how to use and excel with the technology that is being used.  I was struck by a couple videos in this blog that discuss a program designed to get every student to have their own laptop.  Would they use this as a 'toy' so to speak or would they actually benefit and learn while using it.  The obvious stepping stone is the funding but it is great to see the students tell the public how they use it and how they are improving. 

The blog itself is called Dangerously Irrelevant (http://bigthink.com/blogs/dangerously-irrelevant?page=2) and it is written by Scott McLeod.  He is an associate professor in Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky.  He is also the founding director of the UCEA Centre for the Advancement of Technology Leadership in Education. This is the US' only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators, and he is co-creator of the wildly popular video series,  Did You Know and Shift Happens.  Scott uses his position to create awareness about integrating technology in the classroom.  He is well known throughout his home state of Iowa and gaining recognition on the national stage. 

His big emphasis is to let eduactors know that computers are no longer used as just word processors.  With technology kids are using higher level thinking skills and able to problem solve many different ways.  There is also evidence to show kids gain more confidence behind their computer screen and then transfer that into group discussions.  Classrooms in many parts of the world are so technology based now that kids are saying they are not sure what they want to do when they grow up because those jobs have not even been created yet.
Here are some compelling points from Scott himself:
More important than the economic concerns, however, is that digital technologies also allow for dramatic impacts on learning. For example, students and educators now have access to all of the information in their textbooks – and an incredible wealth of primary documents – for free. They have access to robust, low cost or no-cost, multimedia and interactive learning resources - texts, images, audio, video, games, simulations - that can supplement, extend, or even replace what is being taught in their classrooms. Via collaborative Internet-based tools, they can learn from and with students and teachers in other states or countries. They also can quickly and easily connect with authors, artists, business professionals, entrepreneurs, physicians, craftsmen, professors, and other experts.
Students and teachers now can more authentically replicate (and actually do) real-world work through the use of the same tools and resources used by engineers, designers, scientists, accountants, and a multitude of other professionals and artisans. They can share their own knowledge, skills, and expertise with people all over the world. They can find or form communities of interest around topics for which they are passionate and they can be active (and valued) contributors to the world’s information commons, both individually and collaboratively with others.
Essentially, our students and teachers now have the ability to learn about whatever they want, from whomever they want, whenever and wherever they want, and they also can contribute to this learning environment for the benefit of others.

Mr. McLeod is really passionate in his blogging about the use of technology in the classroom and how it is the wave of the future.  In other words it is not going away.  He has several posts with convincing arguments and examples of technology that the average teacher should be able to handle as well as those for more advanced users.

The site itself is very easy to navigate, clean and hardly any distractions with regards to advertising.  There are links and easy to find archives listing a variety of different topics.  There are a few acronyms thrown out there that you really have to research and there are times where he assumes the reader knows what he is talking about.  All in all it is an interesting blog for any educator and parent.

To end the review I would like to share some of Scott's points on integrating technology.

If we were REALLY serious about educational technology, we would do things like…

• put a robust digital learning device into every student’s hands (or let them bring and use their own) instead of pretending that we live in a pencil, notebook paper, and ring binder world;
• we'd teach students how to properly maintain and manage those computing devices rather than removing user privileges and locking down the ability to change any settings;
• we'd show students how to edit their privacy settings and use groups in their social networks instead of banning those networks because they’re ‘dangerous’ and/or ‘frivolous’;
• we'd teach students to understand and contribute to the online information commons rather than ‘just saying no’ to Wikipedia;
• we'd understand the true risk of students encountering online predators and make policy accordingly instead of succumbing to scare tactics by the media, politicians, law enforcement, computer security vendors, and others;
• we'd find out the exact percentage of our schools’ families that don’t have broadband Internet access at home rather than treating the amorphous ‘digital divide’ as a reason not to assign any homework that involves use of the Internet;
• we'd treat seriously and own personally the task of becoming proficient with the digital tools that are transforming everything instead of nonchalantly chuckling about how little we as educators know about computers;
• we'd recognize the power and potential (and limitations) of online learning rather than blithely assuming that it can’t be as good as face-to-face instruction;
• we'd tap into and utilize the technological interest and knowledge of students instead of pretending that they have nothing to contribute;
• we'd integrate digital learning and teaching tools into subject-specific preservice methods courses rather than marginalizing instructional technology as a separate course;
• we'd better educate and train school administrators rather than continuing to turn out new leaders that know virtually nothing about creating, facilitating, and/or sustaining 21st century learning environments;
• And so on...