Today we had a presentation by Nichole Pinkard at school. As the director of Innovation at the U of C and recipient of a $1.6 million grant from the MacArthur Foundations, she has been really making some changes in the way kids do things. Our hope was that her presentation would get people thinking about teaching the kids where they are and implementing more technology in the classroom.
The important idea to me right now is that people understand that there is actually more to technology than just computers. Actually, I sometimes think that 1:1 could be isolating. Of course, that is just my opinion today, could change. The main idea is that, given the current state of the economy and the amount of technological hardware our kids have at home, we should be thinking outside the box a bit. Flip cameras are technology that can be used to have 4 kids collaborate on one computer to make a film. Mp3 players, especially those with video capabilities, allow the students to be consumers of information on a different scale. Start thinking about MP3 files as homework assignments and take advantage of that downtime they have between travelling from one destination to another.
About the picture?
This is from the blog of Eric Langhorst in Liberty, Missouri as he prepares his students to pilot a Zune project for Microsoft called the Speaking of History project . Podcasting and the use of MP3 players are an important part of his 8th grade social studies class.
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