Technology â what works and what doesnât?
Tue, 20/03/2007 - 10:10am — stuart.bradford
Letâs hear your thoughts on different types of technology youâve used.
Why do you love/hate it?
Is it too simple or too complicated for the job youâre trying to do?
Does it work perfectly every time or fail you and embarrass you when you need to rely on it the most?
Go on get it off your chest...
New technology - a threat or a promise?
This is the title of the upcoming inet online conference for students - kicking off on Monday 25 February. Looks like some interesting questions will be raised e.g. are adults scared of technology and why?! Which are more important - computers or books?
You can find out more at http://www.ssat-inet.net/online_conferences/student_online_conferences/i...
Visions of the future
Hello,
Did any of you see the "Visions of the future" documentary on last night?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/visions-future.shtml
It was quite thought provoking. One of the points was the idea of how we might begin to use technology (in the form of implants) to increase our own intelligence - this will bring a whole new dimension to the "digital haves" and "have nots". There's also the issue of whether such things will constitute cheating in exams!
19th century education in 21st century America
An interesting short film. Maybe slightly lacking in balance, but thought provoking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
Website bookmarking
A colleague shared this really useful and easy to follow video about how to make use of social bookmarking sites like 'delicious'. Try it out and see what you think!
http://londonpaper.viralvideochart.com/youtube/social_bookmarking_in_pla...
Tailored learning through technology key to improvement
This is a key conclusion of a four-year study, called the ICT Test Bed project. set up by the DfES and managed by Becta.
Stephen Crowne, Becta's Chief Executive says: âWe have said for some time now that if technology is used properly in the classroom it can help to produce a major improvement in results. Not just in academic achievement, but also in involvement, attendance and in the overall efficiency of the institution"
Read more from www.becta.org.uk.
Do you agree with the report findings?
The first recorded IT person at work
Thanks to Michele for sending this very funny clip in.
What do you think?
Has technology gone down hill since then?
The future of interactive technology
Microsofts new touch sceen technology could one day end up in your schools. take a look at the amazing video's, especially The Possibilites which gives us a look into the possible uses of this technology.
www.microsoft.com/surface
Just the fax ma'am.
I recollect a speaker at an ICT conference held in the London Borough of Lambeth, who, as cash was been shelled out right, left and centre to install networks and ICT suites in schools, was happy to promote the simple fax.
There are still a whole bunch of kids out there who cannot get trapped in the web, but they may have access to a fax machine and telephone connection in their school.
Pictures speak loudly to most of us and just sharing ideas on chair design in KS2, for example, opens up new avenues.
Recycled paper from all those cock-ups at the photocopier can be used to fill a fax machine (or all those handouts at INSET and staff meetings).
Is new technology always the best choice (think VISTA)?
Imagine teaching in a village school in rural Nepal. What would be your essential, low budget, pieces of kit that would enhance the learning of most of the students you had to teach?
'Pay Attention' vodcast on learning technologies
I found this on an internet learning discussion list I subscribe to :
âPay Attentionâ: http://t4.jordan.k12.ut.us/t4/content/view/221/35/
If you canât make it play, you can see it on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNVFuPJyN1Y&mode=related&search=
and I think really opens up the way we might think about using new technologies. I love the cellphones idea & am going to try it out. Plus the creativity bits really chime with LGTâs materialsâ¦
Then thereâs this â
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFKfXiCbLw&mode=related&search=
watch the letters carefully as they are typing out a message for us (in a very SMS/texty way) â and the visual at the end made me laugh â a little paranoid, but thought provoking nonetheless!
Michele
I love the cell phones
I haven't stopped thinking about the cell phone idea since I first read it.
I think it would be fascinating to use cellphones in class to recreate and update Stanley Milgram's Small World experiment - are there now less than six degrees of separation? I'm not sure of the child protection issues or ethical implications, nor where it would fit into the curriculum. But it would certainly be fascinating. Maybe see who could get a named famous person on the line!
PS I think you may have the last two links the wrong way round!
Peter Gabriel Sledge Hammer
It's only a tool.
Technology in schools once consisted of slates and chalk and now they are usurped by fancy techno, brain frying, electricity guzzling alternatives.
Do computers, IWBs. ipods, mobile phones, nano mp3, PDAs ever allow for quiet reflection of the actual world?
Could a child feel the rain on a summer's afternoon and a hug from a friend as effectively on any piece of virtual reconstitution?
Tools have their place in any array of teacher's equipment, but do we always need a sledgehammer to crack the walnut?
I'm ancient enough to recall the amount of enthusiasim that was hurled into the use of the cassette recorder as a learning/teaching tool.
Podcasts now rule?
There is a lot out there to utilise to engage children in their own journey as a learner.
I feel we have to harness it or send it for obedience training at least.
A rock is just a rock until it becomes a hammer, an anvil, a projectile or a seat.
So possiby it is down to how we utilise the proliferation of 'rocks' around us and when we choose to hurl them or park our bottoms on them?
Jef Jon Fox
Technology
I am a specialist ICT teacher in a Brent primary school. I have done it for 2 years and absolutely love teaching the whole school ICT. I think IT is a great resource in that most children are well motivated by it, indeed many are surrounded (lost?) in it! It also provides a break from the ordinary 'chalk and talk' whiteboard and presents a plethora of new visually stimulating resources. Only thing is, like everything it should be used in the right proportion.
Alternative technologies in schools
Would anyone consider using 'recreational technologies' in School? Handheld devices like PSP's, Nintendo DS's, iPods and consoles like the Nintendo Wii.
Lots of these devices are already owned by students and have the capability to play sound, video and browse the web....could these game devices really be used to teach?
The Nintendo Wii for example with it's innovative remote could use it's web browsing capability to easily replace whiteboards when trying to engage students with online interactive content, giving students a device which they'll already be familar with using and more importantly want to use.
virtual whiteboards
I hear a lot of teachers donât like using virtual whiteboards, is this true? Whatâs wrong with them? Whatâs right with them?