Age is Arbitrary!

Important post by Dean Groom on the reality of laptops in the classroom. It's a well thought out list of the top 23 things a teacher needs to know. Here's a highlight that I think especially needs to be stressed:

I don’t know how, I don’t like to, No one has told me … expect that some teachers really do believe that schools never change and will refuse to change their teaching approaches. You won’t get 100% buy in – even if they nod politely in staff meetings – asking for help is challenging for some – and age is no indication of belief and attitude.

Yes! Yes! Yes! We've got to get over the idea that age is everything here.

Hands-down one of the most innovative teachers we've got here on the faculty is a guy who's already retired from a full career in public education.

And come to think of it, many younger teachers may well not want to take their students into the digital landscape for fear of what the students might wind up finding out about the teacher! After all, many of the folks going into teaching now at 22, 23, 24 years old are the same folks who just a few years ago were posting FB pics from college parties.

We've got to get over our assumptions of who 'is' and 'isn't' digitally proficient. There are all sorts of reasons folks either feel comfortable or uncomfortable with technology.

Age is Arbitrary! (if you want it).

Will SmartPhones be a viable alternative to Laptops for school and work?

Here the early results from my recent ask500people poll:



17% Very Unlikely
29% Unlikely
19% Not Sure
29% Likely
6% Very Likely

SmartPhones

Interesting article at eSchool:

"Year after year, when students are asked on our Speak Up Survey what they'd most like to have, I get the same answer," said Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, a national education group that publishes the largest annual survey of student, parent, teacher, and administrator attitudes toward school technology.

"I hear: I want a laptop," Evans said.

But it's not the specific nature of the device itself that kids desire, she explained; instead, it's what a laptop gives them: the ability to control their own knowledge. According to Evans, a laptop serves as a proxy for intellectual freedom--and with recent advancements in handheld and smart-phone devices, these technologies can offer much of the same experience, at a typically lower cost.

There's been a bit of talk about this in comments as well as emails I've received related to earlier posts. So, what do you all think? Let's take a poll on ask500people: Will SmartPhones be a viable alternative to Laptops for school and work?